I Met A Wrinkly Old Woman Today, On My Way Back Home, Asking Me To Make Some Space In The Seat. The Creases

I met a wrinkly old woman today, on my way back home, asking me to make some space in the seat. The creases near her eyes, and the veins clearly visible in her almost translucent skin, stirred something in me. The skeletal body, trying hard to sustain in the wrapped cotton saree, and a small bag, that probably held her world. She was most certainly in her eighties, travelling alone in a metro, needing protection from all possible sides, symbolically and literally. But as she sat beside me, and a creepy man walked past, she held the steel bar beside me, hiding me from a probable attack, pretending like she knew me and I knew her, and we were travelling together. I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed to feel the protection from a lady, who could barely protect herself. She did what you would have. She was so much like you.

The creepy man, most probably was no grave danger. May be he just looked creepy. And I believe I knew ways to protect myself if it was the situation worth worrying. But that thin hand, with protruding blue veins, and shrunken skin, did manage to make me feel safe.

How hard it is for people to leave absolutely? So they leave no trace behind. I saw you, in her today. "Thankyou Dadi!", I uttered before leaving, the words I never said to you. We were close but unexpressive. And I wish I said so much to you.

That toothless smile, and those sunken cheeks, did make me smile goofily. The smile of the older ones are the most beautiful ones in the whole wide world.

Keep visiting me this way. I have to tell you alot.

An excerpt from an autobiography I will never write, Vanshika

In the midst of my existence, I unconsciously came in terms with the fact that you only truly see someone's physical characteristics for the first ten minutes of meeting them. That is to store a picture of them inside the brain, to recognise them later on, or to reminisce the first time meeting up. After that, it is all under that layer of epidermal cells that are nothing but sheer curtains, you manage to look through every-damn-time.

-V.S.

"Religion?"

"Commercialized faith."

"Righteousness?"

"An untouched illusion."

"What of ethics?"

"A bible everyone carries to protect themselves from vampires."

"What? Vampires?"

A nod. "Vampires- the reality of self we refuse to believe."

-VS

I wish I were a cotton candy,

the world- an excited mouth.

So I'd necessarily leave a sweeter taste,

even when things go down south.

-Vanshika

Someone: So how many times do you pretend to be in a conversation, while completely zoning out about life?

Me: Yes.

You wait for me,

was the plan.

I saw you standing,

so I ran.

I could not believe,

people stay.

Warm promises still spur,

come what may.

-Vanshika Singh