SHORT STORY: THE REFLECTION
“The reflection of the creator is present in man if someone wants to find him then first of all find out a human.” These words stroked my ear drum and then they stroked my heart. Among the sounds of laughter and murmuring in the market crowd, I heard these words floating in the sac of a vibratory voice and my eyes started searching for that great heart who felt this, for that clever mind who decorated this philosophy in a sentence and for the lips whose movement let these words escape from the prison of inner terror.
When I wandered around I found an old man, in a clumsy outfit, seated in a corner of the footpath, holding the praising beads in his right hand. In front of him there were mirrors of different sizes. His watery eyes were staring at the mirrors and he was speaking to his image that was formed in the mirror.
The people passing by the old man were busy looking for the best product for them. Some ignored the old man and some of them heard what the man said but preferred not to get into his business. The old chap was busy talking to himself. When I took some steps towards him abruptly, without moving his eyes from the mirror he said:
“Some heart beats are beating the silence.
Do they want to search me more?
In order to get the wisdoms licence.
Confuse your mind and don’t be sure.”
After hearing this I was amazed and scared. For a while I asked myself whether it would be wise to talk to the old man. But I was curious to find the old man’s perspective about life and humanity. His shaking hands, white beard, wrinkles on his forehead and a secret smile on his face seemed like the expression of the amazing world he was living in his mind. The words he spoke contained a philosophy within themselves. His sentences were containing multiple colours and could be interpreted with multiple angles. I stood still and waited for any change in his facial expression or in his posture.
“My watery eyes can observe the invisible things. A mind in front of me is full of question marks but let me tell it dig more and more to get to the full stop.” Finally he looked up and moved his right eyebrow to an extreme position as a clue for me to understand that he was talking to me.
“How did you get this skill? Is this the old age or a life lesson which gifted you the skill to read others?” When he showed that he was aware of my perplexed thoughts I started putting the question marks in front of him one by one.
“Life gives lessons to everyone according to the person’s personality and according to his acts. Age is the time period you can’t hold it and age is dwell in the life. Both are attached, you can’t separate them. They teach you together.”
“What is the relation between human and life then? Is life resides in human or human resides in life?”
“The human face is an enlightened screen
Buy a mirror to see what does it means”
In a poetic way he said this. He then picked up a mirror in one hand and took his bowl in the other hand. I took the mirror from his hand and put two hundred rupees in his bowl and went from there. When I got into the other street I stared at myself in the mirror and started asking myself if it was a trick to sell the mirrors or is this mirror is really going to reveal some secrets of life to me. I put the mirror in my bag and rushed towards the bus stop to start a new journey in search of a new lesson.
Written by; Fazila Nawaz