A Girl in the City

A Girl in the City

We are always told that each day is an opportunity to learn new things. But today I learnt nothing; it was too tedious and boring. It was a thought that flashed across the mind of an acting student who was completing her workshop at a theatre. Abhinav was her acting teacher working with the Asmara Group. They had their classes in one of the cities in Northern India. Since it was summer vacation so they had gone to Shimla in North India. She felt that there was nothing new to learn from here amongst the natural beauty. Her teacher had advised that as an actor one should observe the surroundings, the people and the nature and learn from them because that is where inspiration comes from. She knew her teacher’s wisdom never failed because Abhinav had personal experiences from other cities of challenging inspiration in the form of people, events, and a sort of invisible presence near her. But this city seemed dried of inspiration, as if the people here had lost their souls, and looked as if they do not desire anything new.

She reached the hotel where her entire group was staying and knocked on a door of the room. Abhinav opened the door. Looking at her distraught face, he immediately sensed her anguished thoughts and then asked: “how was your walk on the Mall?”

“It was no good. I wandered around but met nothing new, may be due to the fact that the place is too small. I have come after so many years, still I could not find any change to the city. Everything is the same, the same people, the same streets, the same weather and even the same events everywhere, as if the city is caught within a cycle of endless repetition.” She said while settling herself on to a sofa, situated at the centre of the room.

Her teacher came near her, and said: “you might be right, but you failed to notice one thing. You missed an important lesson. This city taught you that there are places from which you learn nothing. Be grateful to the city for teaching you this wisdom. This happens in every turn of our lives. We meet people, travel to distant places, expecting greatly from them to teach us some worthwhile lessons, but sometimes they disappoint us by communicating nothing but silence and filling us with boredom. And we curse ourselves and the decision that we had made to travel such a distance, ignoring completely the greatest lesson they teach us: therefore, be very sure that there is not a single place, not a single person that cannot teach us anything. But what we learn is completely upon ourselves, on how we learn it, and on how successfully we interpret the lesson for us.”

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A short note from me: Jyoti  Verma

“I choose to write because it's perfect for me. It's an escape, a place I can be myself. It's a lifetime friend, when I feel out casted from everyone else. It's a journal, when the only story I can tell is my own. It's a book that give me company when I need to be somewhere else. It's a control, when I feel so out of control. It's a healing when everything seems pretty messed up and you land up with all cuts and wounds. It is an energy tonic that keeps me all active and lively and strains out all that is not required to be fit and healthy. And all the more it’s fun and I enjoy it the most especially when life seems just flat-out, dull and boring.” This is a short story of one of those times.

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