All moments are beautiful, but some are stunningly beautiful. Sometimes they catch us unawares or prop up unannounced in the most mundane of places. Like, in a shopping center.
Akshara was crying in her pram as we were going through the customary Saturday shopping. Perhaps she was sleepy. Now this is one aspect of crying that I never quite understand. I mean, it makes sense to cry when you are hungry, you need food / milk, you cannot get it yourself, you need somebody to get it for you. You cry. But when you are sleepy, just sleep, why cry ? Anyway, she was sleepy and she was crying. I did what most parents do in this situation, take the pram for a bit of pram-dancing on busy shopping aisles. She promptly folded her middle and ring fingers from the right hand and took them into her mouth. It is one of the unexplainable curiosities, her motif to announce I'm-going-to-sleep-now. In a few minutes she was asleep.
We entered a gleaming elevator. It was coated with glistening steel on one side, a full length mirror on another and full length glass on the two remaining sides. The floor was made of a reflecting marble. Little lights were strategically placed. As I pressed the button and turned around, the arc of my vision crossed through Akshara's face. A single drop of tear had accumulated in the corner of one eye and had positioned itself smugly between the closed eyesand the nose bridge. It was a combination of the angle of my sight, the position of the lights, the rotation of the earth, the scheming of the planets, the smile of the angels... as the arc of my vision crossed her face, this single drop absorbed and reflected all that fancy light. For a brief moment, it shone like a brilliant diamond.
It was a single moment, a singular moment. Atleast as long as it existed, that drop was definitely worth more than that diamond.
Akshara was crying in her pram as we were going through the customary Saturday shopping. Perhaps she was sleepy. Now this is one aspect of crying that I never quite understand. I mean, it makes sense to cry when you are hungry, you need food / milk, you cannot get it yourself, you need somebody to get it for you. You cry. But when you are sleepy, just sleep, why cry ? Anyway, she was sleepy and she was crying. I did what most parents do in this situation, take the pram for a bit of pram-dancing on busy shopping aisles. She promptly folded her middle and ring fingers from the right hand and took them into her mouth. It is one of the unexplainable curiosities, her motif to announce I'm-going-to-sleep-now. In a few minutes she was asleep.
We entered a gleaming elevator. It was coated with glistening steel on one side, a full length mirror on another and full length glass on the two remaining sides. The floor was made of a reflecting marble. Little lights were strategically placed. As I pressed the button and turned around, the arc of my vision crossed through Akshara's face. A single drop of tear had accumulated in the corner of one eye and had positioned itself smugly between the closed eyesand the nose bridge. It was a combination of the angle of my sight, the position of the lights, the rotation of the earth, the scheming of the planets, the smile of the angels... as the arc of my vision crossed her face, this single drop absorbed and reflected all that fancy light. For a brief moment, it shone like a brilliant diamond.
It was a single moment, a singular moment. Atleast as long as it existed, that drop was definitely worth more than that diamond.
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