One AMONG MANY

The grey-haired stranger, photobombed with a smile

Published by Swati Basu Das on April 16, 2024

“A little smile travels afar!” The grey haired stranger with his wrinkled smile twinkles all the while.

In the middle of chaos there exist halts. These halts unknowingly bump through moments that frames a picture bigger than the chaos around. 

Our train to Salzburg from Munich was right on time. The haste around holds an instance of a salient pause. The pause knocked at us with a sudden entry of an unexpected high spirited entity, making capture of the moment worthwhile.

Running in short of time, even if not late in catching up with the train timings after a lavish breakfast at Hilton Munich Park, we hurried thrillingly on our toes.

One or two clicks before we board the train was agreed upon at the station as a saved memory to be cherished later – as and when we want to look back in time.

As I geared up to click a father-son duo image, I remained an unaware, unprepared host to a grey-haired man dressed in knee-length stonewashed blue jeans and navy-blue tee teamed up with black socks and boots steadily walking through the crowd, hence readily failed to greet him verbally.

The tall man with his very own bright aquiline feature must be in his late-sixties then. I am neither sure of his age, nor, his name, or his ethnicity either. Have I had killed that slim inhibition of mine, and intended to know where he was coming from and where was he headed to; may be then I would not have tagged him “a stranger” in here or anywhere for that matter, or a “photo-bomber” as my son technically termed him.

“There he was, approaching steadily without our attention, until…………………..“

His non-gloomy appearance and dynamism perhaps was the sunniest of them all in the morning rush hour. How can one miss a chance of an introduction? But perhaps that missed chance made him even more notable.

Raising his hands as he stood behind my family, he posed to my amusement. My son and husband were ignorant of what was going on behind their back, or else I am sure this frame would have been different. Funnier or less is left to that moment wherein the clock is still stuck to one minute to ten past thirty-five, on 29^th July 2022.

Without their knowledge the man walked past them as a regular passerby without an expression.

Being in a rush state, I could only speechlessly smile and take the picture without clarifying what was going bizarre in front of my lens.

They too were unaware of what just happened behind their back until I moved on to take my own selfie.

“He appeared from within the crowd – photobombed – and fused in the crowd again“

As I turned to take a selfie, the wrinkled gentleman appeared again in my frame without a hitch. He gave a sweet charming wrinkled smile. That was all from him. A smile. This surprisingly warm gesture puts me to smile and shines my spirit each time I scroll through these three pictures.

“The smile we shared“

Holding my phone aside, I barely thought to speak to him while pacing steadily towards my train. On a second thought, I looked back to find him hastily walking through and vanishing in the crowd.

Did he truly want to photo-bomb? Did he want us travelers to feel at home in a foreign land from where he belong? Is he someone worth a limelight whenever he is around? Was it his birthday and he wanted me to raise a toast for him through my lens? Was he heading at his workstation to bid adieu to his strenuous professional life and this route that he followed daily to work for decades? Maybe he is just that happy-go-lucky passerby or a renowned face whom I am not aware of.

These questions are best answered with this stranger’s artless smile that is meant to behold forever. The grey matter within his grey-haired veteran-wrinkled looks knows that better perhaps.  

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