It was exactly 20 years ago. A new graduate, about to join my first job, waiting at the Victoria Terminus ladies waiting room.
A lady walked in, peddling raisins . Something was different about her. I looked , and then I saw. her legs were halved , kind of only up-to the knee. She walked on these, maybe somewhat stumpish a walk, but managed to hobble along . Somewhere along the way , she looked at me and asked - did i have a mirror ? She needed it to position a small bindi on the centre of her forehead. I found a small compact, an old one , and handed it to her. She wanted to give it back . I gestured - she could keep it. Really, she asked ? "Don't you need it?" " No, I don't. Keep it".
I walked out of there to my first job, glowing with reflected happiness. She did not need to struggle to reach the wall mirror anymore. A small mirror, that reflected her joy, said it all.
Twenty years later, it came back in a flash " Aina - a mirror" . They say, what you sow, you reap. Maybe, twenty years back, I sowed the seeds of happiness in a tiny mirror.
Today , it comes back to me. Makes me so happy, when i write , masquerading as Aina , the mirror.
Regards,
Aina Rao facebook: amblingindian
