Short Story : Live in the moment

Live in the moment is a short story when a young man name Abhimanyu meets and old lady and its about their conversation, they are on a flight to Bhopal and they have been allotted adjacent seats.

Abhimanyu preferred to travel through trains more than flights, as he sits in the flight waiting for pilot to pull the throttle and take the flight of the tar runway tearing through the clouds into the clean and clear blue sky. Abhimanyu was never comfortable with flying as he gripped his seat almost leaving his mark on the arm rest during the take off. He looked at his side and there was sitting a calm old woman, her face was wrinkled and had a full set of grey hair. She looked back at him with a smile as though she found Abhimanyu’s frightened face amusing. The old lady asked Abhimanyu, “is this your first time?”



The plane was now floating weightlessly in the air and Abhimanyu was happy that one of the two most fighting parts of the flight was over for him, he adjusted his seat and replied, “no, but I am never able to adjust to the horrendous jerks while taking off or landing, I guess it’s motion sickness that bothers me”. The old lady smiled and replied, “My husband was the same as you, and you must be the exact age when we met. Abhimanyu didn’t want to engage an old woman for the rest of the flight so he just gave a nod of okay and started searching for a magazine, the collection was awful as most of them were either business weakly or cosmopolitans. He combed through the shelf and found nothing worth an hour of reading. Forgetting that he won’t get any signals thirty thousand miles up in the air, he pulled out his mobile and then to get it back in his tight jeans.

The old lady seeing Abhimanyu’s antics, tried again to start a dialogue “so are you visiting or from Bhopal?” Abhimanyu trying to settle in his chair now adjusting it to a proper angle replied “yes I am from Bhopal, but this time I am only visiting, you see I haven’t been back for a long time now, so I decided to take a break and meet all of friends”. After listening that Abhimanyu was from Bhopal, the old lady felt a sense of common ground for them to talk about, Abhimanyu even though disinterested in the conversation was cordial enough to reply to various queries put forward by the old lady regarding where he lived or what he does, but then she asked about his love interest. It was the question which also lingered in Abhimanyu’s head, and without even knowing Abhimanyu just jabbered out the real reason for his trip back to his home town. The old lady after listening to Abhimanyu’s long rapid rant just laughed hysterically. After controlling her laughter she apologized, seeing him sitting all embarrassed and thinking hard on what he had just revealed. The old lady replied “So do you really think you love that beautiful young girl?”

Abhimanyu now in deep thought carefully mending his words to speak “yes...maybe…I don’t know, I talked to her few days ago and she also gave an indication she might feel the same”. The old lady had a curious look on his face as she asked Abhimanyu what is that he is going to do. Abhimanyu mulled over her question as he contemplated whether he should disclose his plan to an unknown stranger, even though his brain resisted but his heart wanted a second opinion from someone.

Author views: I am a person who doesn't care what people think and often say whatever comes to my mind, but far too often I have seen that people are always planning something or the other, they are more worried about their future and sadly they even use this planning in case of love. So this short story I tried to just show a simple side of what really people thinks and how often they need someone else to open their eyes for them.

 The stewardess came to their seats and asked if they wanted anything but was shooed away by the old lady as she was really intrigued with what Abhimanyu was about to say and didn’t want to be disturbed. Taking a sip of water which he brought along for the flight Abhimanyu started to narrate his grand plan, “look I know her for a long time and we are really comfortable with each other, so I have thought that when I see her again or if I get to see her again, I will ask her out and take her to the best place, get her roses and I don’t know the stuff---” the old lady quickly interrupted him in mid-sentence and butted in her words before Abhimanyu could further reveal his plans. “Son you think too much, if you really like this girl don’t let your insecurities get in your way, looks what you are doing, you are devising a plan to make a girl fall in love with you”. Abhimanyu absorbed each and every word which was said to him and felt like a dimwit, who thought love as a presentation and doing grand gestures will get the approval he wanted.

The old lady further continued “listen, everyone says be yourself but what they don’t say is, say what you truly feel, you don’t have to be perfect or make everything perfect, just let her have a good time and stop being so rigged in your thinking and finally don’t be so naïve to think girls only like grand gestures, it’s the little things which really counts”. Abhimanyu lay there still dumfounded as he felt he was being scolded, but also felt glad that this old wrinkly lady really did listen to him and her advice didn’t sound bad either.
‘Fasten your seat belts’ sign started to blink as the flight was about to prep for landing, Abhimanyu was not scared this time, as he looked at the old lady and gave her a smile and in return she gave him a reassuring smile back, after landing Abhimanyu helped her with her bags till the checkout where he realized that he have been so occupied with his story, he didn’t ask the old lady about her business in Bhopal, “I almost forgot to ask you about your visit to Bhopal” he asked politely. The old lady replied “Son you are so much like my husband, he was just like you, always thinking and never lived in the moment, I came here to meet him, and you know it’s his birthday tomorrow”. Abhimanyu and the old lady walked out where his friends were waiting while he saw a beautiful wooden cross with a small Jesus figure dangling of the end of a chain which hung from the old ladies neck, he further asked “is your husband coming to pick you up?”, the old lady replied “if he does, I would be scared as he has been dead for 20 years now” and then her old face broke out a smile as Abhimanyu stood there surprised with the love of the old lady towards her dead husband and then finally smiled himself, he further thanked her for such great advice.

They walked slowly towards the exit gate, where his friends were waiting for him. They greeted him as they hugged and laughed when he saw the old lady walking away and finally realized what she meant when she said “he didn’t live in the moment”, he forgot to ask the name of the old lady!