The Pause

Green, yellow, red…

I was a second too late, to zoom off without being stuck at the traffic light. I would like to believe that I would have been able to skip this light but I know I always halt at this cross road. I look around and almost everyone around me is on their way back home from work. Everyone looks the same with the same posture and exhausted faces. I might look like them as well, and I would never know. As I stood, I was busy letting my thoughts run about pulsatile flow, and how some crazy physicist noticed that we humans behave like one inanimate object when stuck in traffic. He would definitely be looking at humans returning home from work, as everyone in front of me does look the same.

I usually reach these crossroads at 6:15, when the sun is on its way to touch the horizon. The city planners had blessed us here, not because the traffic moved fast, it never moved fast, it was because one of the roads lead to the west. At this hour the gold from the sun rains on trees and buildings, and the light which was too heavy for the leaves and bricks to hold, would spill on the asphalt road, making the river of gold cascade down to our feet as we stood at the crossroads. The first time I took this route I clicked a photo and sent it to my partner. I was truly excited about it and wanted to share it with him. Now I have gotten used to this view. It doesn’t entice me anymore. As I was looking around, ignoring the gold spilling on the asphalt, waiting for the light to turn green, I noticed the woman in front of me take out her phone to click a photo.

I wondered what she’ll do with the photo? I have seen people these days just click photos to send it to the graveyard of the imaginary unlimited storage on their phone. But wait… she may be sending it to her partner! Was she like me? Did she share everything that happened in her life with her partner or was she going to share it with some strangers online? I had started believing that she wanted to share the photo with her partner. That will make me feel a bit less alone.

I was seeing the same thing as her, why didn’t I find the same view as amusing anymore? Was it because the hot food at home made me happier? Or was it because the person whom I would have liked to share it with wasn’t there with me?

As I grew curious and looked closer into her phone… I realised she shared it with her snapchat humans.

Red… Yellow… Green…

I went home and ate a cold meal alone.