One Hand Sweater

ONE HANDED
SWEATER

I used to travel daily by electric train from Tambaram to Park.

One day I marked one couple in their 50s, fair, slim, smiling and gracious. Husband in office dress with a briefcase and wife with sober colour saree with shawl.
They sat in close proximity,
hand in hand on the station concrete bench.
They used to board the train, sit a by window seat and sit close to each other.

The husband would read the newspaper and the wife would start knitting a cream-coloured sweater.
Seeing them day after day, I fell in love with them.
I used to come early to the station to find them out and see them from a distance. Admiring them and thanking God that the world is full of such Beautiful People.

I saw the sweater get completed till the waist portion. Then the chest portion, Then the neck, Then the right hand.
The lady was knitting the sweater as if there was no hurry,
with her quiet and steady pace and Smiling face.

Every time they would board on and alight the train hand in hand. Taking care of each other amidst crowded local train.
And suddenly, I missed them as I couldn't find them in the station.

Days passed, 2 months passed without meeting them. I got worried and impatient. Because I had somehow started loving them.
And when I had almost lost hope altogether, one morning I found that the gentleman in his usual dress and with his briefcase was sitting on a bench.
Gathering my courage and with all hesitancy, I walked towards him, sat beside him and asked, "Sir, sorry if I am bothering you. But Where is ma'm?"
He saw straight to my face with lots of queries.
*
With a hurried breath I continued, "Sir, in fact, I have been watching you both for so many months. I saw you as one of the most wonderful couples God has created in the world. I silently admired and respected you from a distance. I used to come to the station early to find you out. I used to board the same compartment as you boarded. But where is ma'm? Is she alright?"

"No. She is no more. She left me almost 2 months back." The man said with moist eyes. My eyes too.

I got a goose bump. I got a choking sensation.
"She was suffering from throat cancer in terminal stage. She wanted to stay beside me and feel me every moment of her life. So against the advice of doctors, she used to accompany me to my office, after quickly finishing her household chores and she started knitting a sweater for me so that I don't catch a cold and throat cancer, because she always thought this cold and pollution caused her throat cancer."

Two trains came and went by. He was not in a hurry. Then the 3rd train came and He said, "I have to board this train or else I will be late for my office."
He didn't wait for me. He hurriedly headed to board the train.
And then I discovered the left hand of his cream coloured sweater was still incomplete !
The gentleman had put on the unfinished sweater so easily and unhesitatingly that everything else was insignificant to him.
He could still feel his wife beside him with this unfinished right-handed sweater.

I couldn't resist my tears rolling down.
The sweater was incomplete, but their loving relation was a complete full circle .

We all struggle to lead an incomplete life like this incomplete sweater but the warmth of one-handed sweater has the power of making the relations a full circle.

Get with whom-so-ever you want, let all other things be incomplete in life. But make efforts so that all relations be complete like a full circle : with Love, with Affection, with Respect, with Trust and with Gratitude.
If you run away from incompleteness you will reach incompleteness.
If you strive to complete the circle, you can make a full circle with the warmth of incompleteness !

(Written by a friend of mine)​