Saloni was in a mad rush to reach home today post her most hectic day in her accountancy career. She knew that if she did not reach the railway station on time, she might miss her train and that meant another 20 minutes delay in reaching home. Today was difficult, her immediate boss had screamed at her and her colleague had made sure she was credited for a mistake she was not even a part to begin with.

It was around 11am and the railway station was comparatively deserted than usual. She inspected the train time table and realized she had actually reached early today. It was another half hour before her train arrived so she decided to sit on one of the empty benches on the platform.

There were two benches in sight; one was occupied by two chit chatting ladies while another one was empty on which she decided to be seated.

The Diary is found, But who is the owner ?

She found a diary on it which was lying idle and disowned. Being a curious personality and an avid reader, she decided to pick up The Diary and see if she could find the owner among st the ladies sitting on the alongside bench. She waved to them with the diary but they ignored her completely. She glanced at the diary once again and something pulled her towards it, it was a very strong feeling which made her want to open it and start reading it immediately.

After much thinking she took the diary into her hands and flipped opened its brown half torn cover.

It was still 20 minutes before her train arrived so she decided to read it and decided that if the owner arrived while she was secretly reading it she would rightfully say she was only searching for the owner’s details to contact him and nothing more. The first page contained lines written in beautiful handwriting.

Saloni starts reading, but should she?

It was an old diary and its pages were bloated with crippled binding and stains of tea or coffee drops decorated its pages. Saloni started reading the first page and turned her attention to her left from the corner of her eye and saw a young lady clad in a beautiful red saree walking towards her from the other end of the platform.

While Saloni couldn’t help staring at her, the lady walked towards her and sat right next to her. She was wearing a flowery perfume which reminded Saloni of the mogra (Arabian jasmine) flowers grandmother used to wear in her hair.

Saloni was just 10 years old when her grandmother passed away to a deadly fever, leaving behind a pile of childhood memories with Saloni. She tried to ignore the lady and continued reading the diary instead. Still on page one she was feeling mystical already, the handwriting was mesmerizing and the perfume of the lady sitting beside her was only making the whole reading experience worthwhile.

While she was immersed in the diary, one of the ladies sitting on the bench alongside got up from her seat and started screaming on the other lady.

The screaming lady was wearing a black jacket and the other lady was wearing a white Salwar kameez imparting a monochrome effect to the whole scene. The noise made it impossible for her to concentrate on her reading.

The lady in black exclaimed,

“Look I do not care how you do it and what your heart thinks. I want you to do it because it will be good for both of us. There is a lot of money but your ethics are creating a barrier which is unacceptable to me.”

The lady in the white kurta heard the proposition very calmly and just kept nodding her head sideways displaying her disapproval. While the fight was unfolding, the red diva sitting next to Saloni spoke to her for the very first time,

“I think you should stop the fight” and with that she took out a pocket mirror from her silver handbag and started applying lipstick on her lips.

As Saloni was trying to understand the fight and decide if she should act at all on the happenings, the lady in black took out a hammer from her purse and hit the other lady bang on her forehead making her bleed and she fell flat on her face on the platform.

Saloni was shivering and wanted to scream but felt as if someone was choking her and while she was trying to find a voice, the woman in black ran away. Saloni tried to ignore everything and concentrated on just being safe and catching her train, in the meantime she went back to the diary.

An unpredictable turn of events

The lady in red started walking away from her and with that Saloni saw a tea seller walking towards her. She started feeling restless and vulnerable of his sudden presence.

She closed the diary and placed it back on to the bench. The tea seller with a glass of piping hot tea walked up to her and stopped. He tried to give her the glass of tea which scared Saloni and so she starting walking away from him. It was now just 5 minutes for her train to arrive and she looked back only to find the expressionless tea seller still following her. While he had a limp in one of his leg which made it difficult for him to walk speedily, Saloni on the other hand almost ran to escape, an unknown fear groped her senses.

The train arrived at the platform and she tried to get into the train as soon as it stopped. But destiny had different plans. The tea seller stopped just behind Saloni and extended his hand with the glass of tea towards her and she started shouting at him;

“Why are you following me?

Go away; I don’t want anything from you”

He forcefully handed the cup of tea to Saloni and started walking back to his tea stall. Saloni started shouting at him again but he ignored her completely.

Unfortunately, Saloni missed her train. She was infuriated with the tea seller for creating such a mess just to hand her the stupid glass of tea because of which she now had to wait for 20 minutes more minutes for the next train.

Having already reached the other end of the platform while running, Saloni now tried to figure out a place to wait for the next train. She could see her bench even from here, but avoided it. The diary yet again pulled her towards itself. She decided to sit somewhere else with the diary, this time on the stairs of the bridge alongside the benches.

She opened the diary, droplets of sweat appeared on her forehead.

It was 11.45 am now and the railway station was completely empty, right from a few closed food stalls to the tea stall whose owner scared the hell out of her.

Saloni felt restless when she saw a strange man walking on the bridge and finally decided to leave the station and pick up a taxi instead to the next station and get a train from there. She walked towards the bridge where the man was walking since it was the nearest bridge from where she could get out.

She clutched the diary in her hands while climbing the stairs. As soon as he reached the bridge, the man stopped walking. Looking at him Saloni felt a chill run down her spine, the man was wearing a pure white suit and a pair of stylish black ray ban sunglasses over his yes; sunglasses at night; really?

Saloni thought.

The strange man walked towards her and gave her a red rose. Saloni was totally lost in his persona and felt hypnotized, she forgot she was on a deserted railway station and that it was past 12 in the mid night. Accepting a red rose from a stranger at his unearthly hour could prove dangerous was something she completely forgot about.

Before she could come back to reality, she realized something was hurting her hand; the rose thorns had punctured her fingertips. She looked at her bleeding fingers and the diary which she was still holding. She sat down on the floor of the bridge startled by the turn of events. She was now struggling to breathe while the man walked away. Saloni read the last line written in the diary and her heart stopped.

The morning arrived with its normalcy and the very first person to notice Saloni lying on the floor of the bridge was a railway policeman who informed the local police station immediately. The next day newspaper broke the news,

“A 25-year-old girl & a 35-year-old woman found dead on Mumbai’s railway station. Early autopsy confirms a severe heart attack as cause of the 25-year-old girl’s death while the women was hammered to death. Detailed investigations still in progress”

The only things found with Saloni’s body were her mobile, her purse and the red rose. The diary was never found by the investigating team.

This is what Saloni had read in the diary –

“As you begin to read this journey penned down by me, a young lady dressed beautifully in red will approach you.

She is mystical and beautiful; she is your past. You will be in trouble if you don’t listen to what your past has to say, but also keep in mind that you do not belong to your past. Like this lady in mystical red, even your past will walk away from you; do not follow her.

Do not look surprised my child, look at the ladies sitting alongside; they represent the Yin and the Yang. They never get along, yet a balance is required between them for all good things to happen. The lady in black is the negative mind and the one in pure white is the positive mind. If the positive mind does not fight for its wants, it will be taken over by the negative one resulting into death of positivity. The one in black will now raise her voice, scream & shout and then she will put an end to the one in the white.

You have to stand against the negativity in your life, the one residing in your mind and the one gifted to you by others; else it will destroy your creativity and ultimately kill your soul.

Another important aspect of our lives is fate, the one which is popularly known as destiny. There is a tea seller who represents fate which has something to offer you. You are a complete stranger to him and vice versa, just like your fate. Do not keep me down at this moment or you will regret it forever.

Your destiny will always prevail over everything else, you have to be fearless and it might actually turn out to be good. Fear blurs your vision and makes you take wrong decisions. You should concentrate on your actions solely. Don’t behave differently because of your inner fears; because fears like opinions change and are volatile; choose your path and act accordingly.

Let’s get you introduced to the concept of love now.

A handsome man dressed in a white suit will reveal to you the meaning of love. Love will make you go blind and take you to another level of existence. A glance might make you fall in love and even out of it. Don’t lose yourself when you are in love with something or someone, your attraction with the physical existence will eventually fade; connect emotionally with your loved ones. People whom you love the most will be the exact same ones who will hurt you the most and that is exactly the way it should be because only they should have a right to hurt you. The red rose will be a testament to this. Love like everything else is not perfect, it is just extra ordinary. The End”