I was sitting inside the college canteen at lunch time, having a cutlet and a soft drink which was as cold as my life was then. That coldness might have hinted about my situation in those days when I was in first year of my college life. My mother had passed away few months back from then, and I even had issues with some professors who acted so rude to me. Life seemed hazy, and I was tensed while having each bite of the cutlet.
At once, I saw an unknown senior boy entering the canteen along with a girl who seemed more like his girlfriend. He appeared so happy with his lively face. I saw them sitting before a table next to mine. I don’t know what made me look at him again… or no, maybe I was not looking at him, but was looking at his happiness wondering if happiness was a real concept or if it was a brief relief that fools people for a while. At that instant, the girl, who was with him, averted her face to look somewhere else, and his attention went on to my face. Looking at me, he said a line with a wink, “It’s life, just enjoy!”
I couldn’t understand why he said that to me when I was a complete stranger to him, nor did he know about the deadly situation I went through in my life. I doubted if my grief gushed out of my skin to reveal my secrets or if my face had lost the ability to hold back the sorrow within. I smiled softly to let him know that I absorbed his unsolicited advise, then continued having my cutlet and soft drink, and he got once again engaged in conversation with that girl.
I came out from the canteen to live my life that was concealed by haze. Later, I never came across that boy, or even might have seen him somewhere but I don’t remember his face to know if it was him. And thereafter in life, I repeated that stranger’s words to myself a thousand times, but each time when I say it to myself, I realize that still I am not understanding the actual sense of that simple line, “It’s life, just enjoy!” -Noel
