The Sun's Goodbye

Just like any previous travels, I’m traveling from Sahiwal to Lahore to resume my medical studies. I originally planned to go one day before my college started but sudden hostel accommodation issues impaired my schedule. They say nothing goes as scheduled in our lives it’s just us who try to fit it into a schedule. I have always been a bit flexible or maybe I feel like I have been. My cousin dropped me at the bus station, and I bought the ticket for the earliest bus available. The bus is filled to the brim. The atmosphere is quite boring compared to my previous travels. I try to shift my focus and the darkness and emptiness of my mind start to fill up with colors of green, yellow, orange, blue, and many more. The scene is beautiful, the sun is setting with its rays on the tree leaves. The water in the lake is turning the light from the sun into a rainbow the crickets and birds are chirping, I would like to remain in this realm for the time being, but nothing is permanent and the scenery in my mind is interrupted by the sound of the horn. Everything crumbles to dust. The view is no longer there. I try to switch music but to no avail, the road is not too good for the bus to keep moving smoothly. The person beside me is busy on his phone. I am unable to start a conversation with him. The trees beside the road are bathing in the sunlight. It’s almost time for the afternoon. The cattle farm in the city on my way to Lahore is still laden with cows though the infrastructure has seen some bad times. The steel sheets are poisoned by rust.

The rice fields are presenting a beautiful view. The rice sprouts are planted in the water, the water shining in the sunlight as if it were a sheet of shining glass. The trees that surround each field the bushes and outgrowths, the green fields stretched to as far as the eye can see, some with crops that are laden with fruit while others cleared and ready to be planted with seeds. The cemetery on the way is as empty as any other one of its kind. There is no one visiting it and the only ones that exist there are the creatures of silence, birds, insects, trees, and bushes. Perhaps dying may not be a bad feeling after all. I will one day be able to move on from this life of noise and haphazardness to a life of silence and the known and unknown. To a place that exists far beyond the reach of humans. There are no clouds in the sky. I can see the sky to its deepest depths. It’s a mixture of blue, white, violet and not to forget yellow, and orange. The sun is setting though there’s still some time before it goes into slumber for 10+ hours just like yesterday. I see a man working in the fields in this heat. I was previously not enjoying the AC in the bus as it didn’t cool much but I am not doing anything while that man is out there in the heat working in the fields to earn his livelihood. He is better than a freeloader than me. At least he is working. The railway line stretching along the road on my left side is empty. Maybe just as empty as me. The train is far from being seen. The only things that are keeping the rail track company are the stones, the soil, the bushes, and the trees. There is a kid in one of the seats behind me. Perhaps he is watching a cartoon as I can hear some poem-like things. The sky is a bit darker than before but now there is a cloud in the sky. At least I can see a cloud on my way. There comes a petrol pump on the way that is abandoned by now just like the person who goes bankrupt or the one who’s been tagged. Though some people find an abandoned pump useful for drying corn no one finds a person useful...

The trees on my way present a strange view. There is a group of them standing tall and though not a forest, they seem enchanting to the observing eye. There is also a banyan tree on the way. It has seen generations of people grow from childhood to adulthood and from adulthood to old age. It might still be host to many of the generations that have come in recent years and hopefully will remain a place of warmth and affection and love for many of the generations to come. I have spent only a month at home but there are still more shops and housing schemes than before on the way. There are mosques too magnificent and small, constructed and those under construction too, adorned with off-white and red colors, adorned with marble, and embellished with blue too. But do they ever host the number of people for which they are built and if so, do they get filled to the brim every time just as my bus is?

We are now approaching the City of Flowers and the sight has drastically changed. The view now in front of my eyes is quite troublesome. The people are going on about their lives, but I haven’t seen a smile on anyone’s face, the shops are ill-built, and they are probably not cleaned for a long time now. There is trash and water from the gutter and the recent rains on the road and the bumps on the sides. There are also tree stumps that have been cut, like seriously dude you can cut trees and sell them and buy them, but you can’t plant them. They are the source of happiness, pleasantness, calmness, nurture, and air for us. We have reached the city and the indication of it are the numerous nurseries by the road that beautify the surroundings. The different kinds of plants in my eyes are soothing me from the dreadful view I have previously seen. The sun is now closer to setting, the darkness is spreading...

The clouds that were previously invisible have now come into view. Though the sun is now behind the dark veil of the sky. The orange ball is now saying goodbye to me and the clouds above it, are being bathed by the rays on one side and the whiteness of the sky on the other. People say that we have a lot of time, but I am realizing that the only time I had with the sun was between the Hi and the Goodbye. The sun is no longer there, and I am also far from the place where the sun bid farewell to me. The clouds have started to show their darker sides as the light is no more. The light that frightened them before is no more and probably more darkness will follow but there is always hope for another day, another time, another opportunity, perhaps that’s what keeps us moving. The time that had fled will never come back but I believe that there is something that keeps me going through these travels no matter how tiresome and boring they might be. Perhaps the life of a wanderer is most suited to a person like me but then everyone must go home someday. But when would that day be? I am still in search of that day...

The bus is passing over a river now. At one glance it seems just simple, but it isn’t that simple. The river is lamenting silence with the sand hills grieving, a person is visible sitting beside the river all alone and with his knees flexed behind his arms and his eyes wandering in the water that has now been poisoned for a long time by the factory far away in the distance with its dark smoke blackening the sky still more. The beautiful view of the clouds is destroyed by the smoke while there are shops that have started lighting up bulbs as the night approaches. Another cemetery with another tale behind it is left all alone on the outskirts. This time probably no one wanted to devote even as much care as to install a light there. As they say, creatures of the night probably don’t need light at all to survive. The darkness is the part and parcel.

As the destination approaches the darkness in the sky increases and the light of the bus seems more comforting. The AC has now started working as the heat from the Sun has ended. One of the lights of the bus is almost fused but no one from the maintenance team tried paying attention to it. The people on the bus seem gloomier than ever as if we are all traveling to a funeral or as if it’s our last day in this world. Well, if it were the case, we ought to be calm and happy about it. If someone died, he got rid of the clutches of this world and met his Creator. What’s more mirthful than this? The people on the bus are simple.

The bus host is sitting in the front and a lady in blue is sitting on the opposite seat. The seats behind the host are followed by a lady in red a man in white a girl in black, a middle-aged man with a black mask on his face for some reason, a guy in a black shalwar kameez probably lost in thoughts of his own, two ladies and a kid and a guy of my age in grey pajama kameez with a curly short beard and black hair. The lady in red at the front is accompanied by her daughter dressed in sky blue. The seats behind the lady in the blue dress are filled by an uncle in white who has the top of his head free of hair and two other young guys dressed in white. Was there a theme day or something? Anyways the next people in line are me and my travel mate who’s probably lost in some Punjabi song as I took a glance before. I am wearing blue jeans with a cheque shirt while he’s dressed in a blue shalwar kameez. Behind me is only one guy dressed in a color I’m unable to recognize. The bus driver is continuing his rash driving and probably we will be reaching our destination in some other 30 minutes.

We approach our destination; the bus host announces to pack our things and get ready to leave. The bus stops and the people on the bus start moving and getting in a queue perhaps the low space between the seats is to make people stand in a queue. As I came down on the platform my eye catches the glimpse of people that were previously out of sight inside the bus and were traveling with me. Perhaps this is how most of us spend our lives we analyze many a situation superficially and deduce results while the reality is quite different. I take a glance at the sky and the mass of people on the station moving in and out of the lounge and with a smile on my face, the past behind, the future in sight, and my steps on the ground I move forward...