The Wait

I pressed the send button and waited. First for it to deliver, then for him to read and finally his response. But there was none. For days. Then weeks. 

First I thought it was one of those games we played with each other without calling the rules. Those got formed on the way. Just like kids play gully cricket. This was who blinked first game. He may be calling it something else. One of the (again unsaid) rules was we didn't discuss these games or their rules and often appeared to be oblivious to them. But both of us knew when the game was on. 

This time however the game lasted longer than ever. Quite a caustic paradox was the fact that while real life games became more and more engaging (even if tiring) as they became longer, ours was waning in enthusiasm. While in a real life game the patrons were on the edge of their seats with excitement as the outcome could go either ways, in our case I don't even know if he was still on his seat playing. Had he left while I waited?

All our life, the only thing that we constantly do besides breathing is... wait. While the lover waits for her to come, the householder waits for her guests to leave. While the patient waits to get out, the expectant waits to get in. Night waits for sleep and the mornings for the cognizance, the snow for the sun and the parched for the rains. The tourist waits to get out while the commuter waits to get in, the mother waits to feed the son while the father waits for the daughter to return. 

I think of this old Doordarshan serial called Intezaar (The Wait). Every episode of the serial opened with a song that had beautiful lines on waiting. The hungry waits for food, the thief for the opportunity, the downcast for love and the despondent for God. Or so it goes. 

I wonder why people wait for the expected? Why is it that while waiting for the inevitable is acceptable, that for the fortuitous is considered ludicrous? What if I stopped waiting? 

I dismiss the thought immediately. After all, he was the realistic one and I a dreamer. It's just been a few weeks. And people have spent a lifetime waiting. Ghalib said so.