City Terminal , Stockholm, May 29th, 2010
I was alone that day, but not lonely. The city terminal was the major entry point to lots of passengers coming to Stockholm, as it was the major point which connected the center of city to the two airports of Brƶmma and Arlanda. Waiting at very comfortable seats I was witnessing so many people moving out and so many more coming in to the city. There were many moments of sad goodbyes and exciting reunions. It was interesting to see each of these people had amazing stories about themselves and sitting there idle and watching them and writing about them I was somehow becoming a part of it myself.
Having walked all over the city and visited all major places in the city I was dead tired and decided to wait for the remaining one hour in the waiting lounge at the terminal from where I had to catch my bus back to Malmƶ. Having forgotten even my headphones, there was actually nothing I could do. However I did start digging up my bag, in an attempt to find some old book or something using which I can spend some of my time. And to my surprise, I see some paper and a red pen :-) Wow! Now that is indeed something strange, first of all I never even really use pen and Red pen? Anyways, I grabbed up the red pen and sets of papers and thought of jotting down some interesting places I visited today. The first line I wrote was:
Having written just this as I was wondering about the first place I visited today, I started staring at the red color. The very look and feel of it was telling something wrong, something spooky. I got lost in deep thoughts, what was it that I was trying to think or see here. Why couldnāt I just think red is like just another color? What was so much to think about it? I tried my maximum to just let the thought go, but I failed to. There was something with the color, I went to my old lessons of physics where I had studied that Red is predominantly of the higher wavelengths of light. But that was not of any sense here, and then I started thinking of what the color might be meaning symbolically: Sin, guilt, passion, anger?
Realizing I was just out of my mind thinking about all unwanted and unnecessary things, I decided to take a break. Went over to the nearest store and got some chocolates and got back to where I was, thinking I will feel different now. While I was busy chewing away the chocolates, I saw a pretty girl standing looking at her watch and staring at the arrival gate. It was very obvious how anxiously she was waiting for someone very near to her. Finally about 10 minutes into the anxious wait, he finally arrived. He ran towards her, just let go his bags from his hands which fell down making a loud noise and simply took her is his arms and hugged her. It was very joyous occasion where eyes of both of them were filled with tears of happiness and excitement of finally having met each other. The passion with which they continued hugging and kissing was attracting some attention from various onlookers including me. But, they were lost in their own world and had no clue where they were and what was happening. The emotions kept continuing and now they both were merely staring at each other and living every moment of this amazing moment of insanity in their life. The onlookers had lost interest and slowly moved on with work, but they were in no mood to let go of each other.
I kind of felt ashamed about staring at them for so long and just went back to my paper and again started staring at my red color. I had a small smile then, thinking maybe it was this passion that I saw in the red color. Personally I had no clue on who they were or anything for that matter, but I felt happy at their reunion and thought maybe the reason why I was wondering so much with the color or RED was merely this. I just leaned back on my chair and slowly closed my eyes. But, suddenly a large gunfire sound echoed in the terminal and their was full havoc. People were running in all different directions, clueless on what was happening, I grabbed my bags and ran with all other people. Nobody knew what was happening, all of us managed to escape through the nearest exits and all managed to get out of the terminal. So what was it? A terrorist attack? A gunfire by some hooligan? Nobody had any idea. The police and other emergency officials were at the spot in less than few minutes and the entire area was sealed off. All passengers were requested to assemble at one area near the entrance and the situation was claimed to be totally under control.
It was a big shock for me to have been part of such a disaster, but I was glad to know that there were no real emergency and no one was injured. That's what I heard until I saw an ambulance coming in full speed and stopping near the entrance. The onlookers eagerly were trying to get a glimpse of who it was. I suddenly saw a small bench and jumped upon it and could see only belly portion of a person fully drenched in blood and red in color, and just behind the stretcher, was the beautiful girl I had seen earlier who was crying insanely. It was that guy who was shot at by mistake, he was the victim. Passion had turned to danger, and now the red color got itself the worst possible interpretation. They were taken away quickly and I really don't know what happened to that guy, hope he survived and is safe now. But, the image of the red belly is never going away from my mind. Sometimes its in the most unwarranted and unexpected ways that we get little signs on what could be coming.
