Two of a kind

Today sitting in the balcony of 9th floor apartment, i had a thought about two very ironic situations of solitude. The following statement summarizes my thought

you are alone but not lonely
or
you are lonely but not alone !

The thought of such situations puzzles me, might have happened with me a lot of time but never thought about it. A thought about a Thought is what this blog is.

Let me tell u a story about two entirely different people, one is a seven year old kid and the other a 19 year old good lookin girl. It was nearly 5 in the evening and time for working to go back home. The story starts with me boarding a bus. Actually i have been commuting a lot lately and the only thing i notice while travelling is lot of faces, lonely faces. Its was the first stop of the bus and most of the seats were empty. i entered the bus and sat down two rows from the back with a kid sitting next to me. He was just a kid and i was surprised to see such a small kid travelling alone in a bus as if his mom dad have abandoned him, whatever the reason of his travel i was sure of one thing it was damn important. His eyes said a lot. The kid had dirt all over him and he wore a torn trouser. he had a sack with him, not sure what was inside. His innocent yet confident and dirty face said to me, "i am a child labourer and i dont have a choice but to be one". At the young age of 7 8, i could call him a self made man who didnt get to live his childhood. As if in the body of child, due to the circumstances, his soul just skipped one phase of human life.

A sudden crispy voice of conductor, "toote nahin hain 6 rupay, baad mein le lena" just stopped me from whatever i was doing. The conductor was saying this to 3 females in there early 20's. One of the female caught my attention. She was dressed finely with all those jhumkas's , silver lining jute chappals, silver belt and a folded torn levis jeans. The word torn can be really confusing sometimes. A torn trouser and torn levis jeans can be the icon symbols of our country rich and poor divide. She was holding a book and a register and ofcourse a sleek moto in her hands. Fortunately, all three of us, me , boy and that girl all were going to disembark at the same stop. The girls were fighting about something, although i dont overhear others conversations but this time i couldnt resist. They had shreaky voices and there conversation sounded like cat fight. I guess they were talking about some lame issue that happened over at some stupid coaching centre. They were having a mid life crisis. Then suddenly the conversation stopped. No girl was looking at the other. And the girl who earlier caught my attention was staring with an emptiness in her eyes through the bus window at the dusky sun. At the present moment, all three of us were silent, even the eyes werent saying anything. We all desperately wanted to reach our destination, which was sadly not an hour but endlessly far away.

I guess the boy was alone but not lonely. He was alone in this whole world but that didnt made him weak, sad or empty. He had a hope and a vision. The girl on the other with all her friends seemed to be the case of lonely but not alone. She seemed utterly confused, stuck in the middle of transition of a life from teenage to adulthood. She was lost in translation. And then the third kind :), which i have not yet introduced, is me, who actually is able to see and think about both the cases. Who can actually think about such small,stupid yet important things in life.