I was almost slipping off into a mid-day sleep when I caught a quick glimpse of her first. She was at the other end of the train compartment talking to someone. Normally, I wouldn’t give a second look but something about her saree caught my eye. It was this bright orange with small polka dots and an olive green border and she had paired it with a red blouse – quite a sight for sore eyes, I would say.

She had her hair braided in the tightest manner possible without even a single stray strand; I’ve always admired that women are able to do that. She was walking towards where I was, stopping at every cubicle and looking as if to find an empty seat. I was smiling inside – there was one empty seat right across mine – and staring when suddenly her eyes met mine. I froze as her cold eyes looked at me from behind a pair of brown rimmed glasses.

It was awkward. Here I was, travelling with my family sitting right next to me, caught staring at some woman. Before I could think of what I should do next, she had walked over to where we were and was now standing right in front of me. All I could see at that moment were her slippers and colored red nails. Gasp!

“…read?”. I suddenly woke up from my trance and looked up. “Do you read?”, she asked. My first thought was “What? Why is she talking to me? Is she talking to me? So, what if I read? Am I in the wrong seat, or may be the the wrong train? Oh God, not again!”. But what came out of my mouth was “Yes madam”. That was when I saw it. She was carrying about 20 books in her hands and some more in a white cloth bag.

She had placed the books on the empty seat across me and said, “These are on sale, 20% off”. Her offer was to the rest of us sitting in that cubicle as well. Another guy sitting nearby came and started browsing through the books. While she explained the price of every single book that he was going through, I used the opportunity to get a good look at her.

Her face was glowing in the late afternoon sun streaming through the open window. She had a big red bindi on her forehead and I could see that although there were a few wrinkles, she also had these beautiful little dimples when she smiled. I instantly wanted to strike a conversation with her; I gathered all my courage and asked, “Do you have Eat. Pray. Love?”. She was still talking to the other guy when I asked this. She looked at me over his shoulder and said, “I think I may have a copy in my bag here, let me check.”.

She was looking inside her bag searching for the book when I noticed the top of her head; she had parted her hair right at the center and silver streaks had started to show from the roots. “A pack of Blackrose Kali Mehendi is due” I thought to myself. “No”, she said, “I’m sorry but I don’t have it. May I suggest The Kite Runner? It’s a wonderful read.” Though I had read the book a few years back and watched the movie as well, I was interested. Handing me the book she said, “That would be 170 rupees”. I handed her 300 rupees and asked, “Can you suggest something else as well? I don’t have change”. I was lying.

“Palace of Illusions is lovely too.” she said. I obliged wanting to continue the conversation. “So what do you do for a living, apart from selling books?”, I asked. “In my heyday, I used to work as a nurse in a private hospital. My husband died a few years back and I was left with nothing as there was no pension as well. That is when I started working at this book store at the railway station. They give me a small commission on every book I sell.”, she said with a smile. I felt a lump form in my throat, but managed not to show it. “So how old are you now?”, I inquired. Looking at me, still smiling, she said, “Just 75”.