Lady in Red

The title could remind you of Chris De Burgh's song "Lady in Red", but what I have to say has absolutely nothing to go in line with that song.

I was waiting in the queue at the Railway reservation counter (as usual, I have been doing that quite a lot these days!!). Even though the counter opens only at 8:00 am, the queue starts forming as early as 7:00 am. As usual, I reached at around 7:15 am. The good thing about this counter is that there are lots of places to sit and wait, of course, everyone sits in the order in which they have come to the counter. Soon after, a lady dressed in red (hence the name, Lady in Red) came next in the queue.

I do try to be as awake or rather as alert as possible at that time of the day, fighting against my eyelids closing due to sheer drowsiness. So probably I might have appeared aloof and in this bad world of ours, my aloof appearance definitely is what everyone waiting in a queue would love to see and thereafter overtake me in the queue. After all, everything one does these days seems to revolve around the notion of "Survival of the fittest". But amongst all this petty competition, I fail to realise that there are some good angels out there who do believe in helping or rather giving me a wake-up call in my case!

The counter opened and unusually this time, I noticed people were rushing and did not stand in queue in the order in which they should. Seeing this commotion and due to my aloofness, I accepted the fact that I would end up far behind and since I was in no mood to actually fight it out, I decided that I be satisfied with whichever position I got in the queue. Suddenly I heard someone calling out to me. It was the Lady in Red and she said, "Hey, you were before me in the queue, come here, I have caught the place for you!" There was something authoritative about her voice and neither could anyone protest nor could I help but actually obey her! Now this is when I was convinced that I was definitely sleeping and hence dreaming of all this.

Reality hit me soon enough and I could not believe that I actually came much in front (my well-deserved position) in the queue. She also pointed out that I skipped out on filling out certain sections in the reservation form. I smiled and told her "Thank you very much!" She had a strange smile, an enigmatic one. I realised that angels like the Lady in Red do exist in today's world.

(Note: Artwork done by Melissa Nu-Lee)