The Stranger

"Hey! son come here."

I was a bit confused when a guard, in his mid-fifties, called me while i was returning from the sports complex.

Aurora, the annual cultural festival my college, was just a week away and the practice of my event (me being the organizer of dancing event) was in full flow. So after the routine check of all the things and the concerned persons for dance practice, i was returning from the sports complex. 

I am not very sure that in which world i was lost when this gentleman intervened.

And frankly speaking, i was a bit confused by his call. So, to make sure whether he really called me or was it some hallucination, i asked him
"Did you call me? "

"Yup."

I went up to him, guessing the reasons for which he might have called me. 

"Ah! May be he is one of those newly recruited guards who keep asking for Identity Cards every time we visit the complex." I told to myself.

"Son, Will you feel bad if i ask you a question? "

"No. Please do ask."

"Why are you so sad?"

I was taken completely off the guards by that question of his.

"Do i appear to be sad? Are you out of your wits? Me being sad i.e Smit being sad? Impossible. I mean, ya i agree that i just woke up before 15 minutes and hurried to this place even without washing my face but saying that i am sad is utter nonsense." Though i didn't say these words to him but this was the immediate response that came to my mind. 

I decided to put it more humbly

"Uncle i am not sad. I just woke up before 15 minutes, so may be my facial expressions have led you to this wrong conclusion."

"Read this." He said that pointing his finger to an article from the magazine that he was reading.  

It was an article about by some Tom Clinton about how to be happy in life. I started reading the article not because i was curious to read it but because i didn't want to offend that generous person (guard).

I continued reading and then, all of sudden a line caught my attention 

'Change Person Change Relationship' That might appear Hit and Trial kind-of-stuff but actually it was not so. It was one of the best article i ever read about how to 'let things go'.

After finishing that article, there was a mutual smile on the face of both of us.

"Son, never be sad. This life is too short to do so."

"Okay." I could not argue with him this time.

While i was returning back to hostel, i was amazed by the turn of events that took place before 10 minutes. The more i thought of it, the broader my smile grew. I kept nodding my head in astonishment.

" How could he...........?"

They say, there is a force that works in a mysterious way.  

I mean, just before 10 minutes a person whom i have never known called me and talked to me as if he knew me more than myself. 

That may not sound too strange/astonishing to you, but believe me, it was. 

They say, there is a force that works in a mysterious way. I do believe..