SOULspace

 Here is another story that emerged from my musings on life. Story Trigger : An incident that took me down this path I had a very normal childhood, school, dance, music class, playing with friends, disobeying parents (sometimes!). I was not keen on writing competitive exams, so did not take the usual entrance exams that my friends were going after. As was expected I chose to do my favorite subject, Zoology from a well known college in Chennai. Outside the class I was crazily into NCC ( ask my Father!), but insde the classroom I was known as the diligent note-taker!. Even now I have  a habit of opening a book and taking my pen out if someone starts lecturing!  Very often classmates would ask me for my notes and I would give it to them without a question. There was this one girl sitting just behind me, not a friend, but a classmate who regularly asked me for my notes. I did give her the books but it was after a few weeks of repeated asking that I eventually turned to her and said, "

 This trigger came via the storytell email group and sent me down memory lane! Story trigger : An encounter with a stranger, which left a profound impact on you Here goes : I was walking to school one hot Chennai morning. We have to carry our books every day to school...(as we dont have a locker system.) My school bag, hung over my left shoulder was heavy with books, as I usually carried most of them, for fear I would need them. I was walking slowly, as the bag was heavy and then I turned a corner...to see  an old man coming towards me. He was hobbling along, was hunched and carrying a bag of sorts himself. Suddenly he stopped..looked at me and said (in tamil...our language). "What heavy burden you bear....and so unnecessary..." He moved on... and so did I ... But I have never forgotten those words, nor the symbolism of what his words meant to me, many times in my life....