My little companion

The Separation

It was a sudden trip. Stolen and sandwiched between two heavy work days. I travel lightly with a small overnighter. But I never forget to take a small lock for it even though I take the overnighter along with me as my cabin baggage. All through my life I could accumulate little of material value but still the idiosyncrasy persisted—protecting my mobile phone for a few minutes while it passed through the x-ray check at the airport security sitting smugly inside my overnighter; or, providing a token security to the not so valuable belongings in my overnighter while I left it in my room for work at the distant city.

Over the years the overnighter changed but not the lock. It somehow became my companion—a little bit of security traveling with me in this insecure world, giving me an elusive peace of mind.

I came to understand early that most locks do not come alone. Almost always they have a key as companion and you have to take care of the key while the lock travels with your luggage. And you know—keys without locks are little children that you have to take special care of, feeling them now and then to be sure that they are still with you. For me it has been a job, a task with a bit of a burden. How many things a man can take care of!

As long as the key is not separated from the lock, you can afford to lose both the lock and the key. You can always purchase a new pair. But the moment you lock your luggage and put the key in your pocket you are in for trouble. After reaching your destination if you happen to lose it, starts the agonizing period of searching for the key, and when you get the final feeling of defeat and be convinced that you had lost it, the process of somehow opening the lock or finally cutting open the lock begins. It happened to me once and I know the agony.

When I boarded the plane this evening, I did not know that the flight was so lightly crowded. I walked down the corridor and reached the row of my seat. Still standing and putting the small suitcase on the aisle seat armrests I took out the small key and hurriedly unlocked the suitcase for taking out my writing pad before any neighboring passenger arrived to disturb me. I would put the suitcase in the overhead cabin storage and peacefully scribble my stray thoughts during the two-hour flight without anything to disturb me except the routine hostesses. It had been a regular piece of small pleasure for me in this age of troubled times.

I took out the writing pad alright and then reached for the lock. It was dangling helplessly with no sign of the key. In an otherwise smooth journey, a sudden hitch. Putting the lonely lock inside the suitcase, I started searching for the small key. Here and there, in the crevices of the seat and below it, once…twice. Just empty space. With all my reasoning power I could not fathom the mystery of the key that deserted me. In an instant it had vanished into thin air, as if by magic. With a slightly heavy heart I settled down for the flight and passed it dozing. I was tired.

At last the plane landed. As it was taxiing I heard the young girl of an air-hostess approaching from the back of the plane. She was asking something to the passengers behind me. I did not pay attention. My eyes were closed. I started when the girl asked me directly, “Excuse me sir, is this yours?” I looked at the small key dangling from her dainty fingers. I could not believe my eyes. My lost key smiled at me. I smiled apologetically, “Yes, I lost it, but I can’t imagine how it reached the back of the plane.” The relief—oh, how can one imagine the joy of getting back a small key!

Such an insignificant piece of metal! But it was my companion and the mate of my lock for many journeys. They had become inseparable from the journeys. Memories like moss collected around them. Losing the key I lost a bit of me. The small hole in my mind filled up again. Peace. I knew though not all holes could be filled up. Not all the things I lost I would get back. Much we lose in our life. We gather and lose. Gather again some to lose again. Till we lose all.

In these series of ups and downs in life, the small key paired with my small lock—my insignificant companions—somehow brightened the commonplace potholed landscape of my mind—for another day.