silence that echoes

The strike had brought the entire traffic to a standstill. Yet she managed to reach the studio. He didn’t acknowledge her arrival.  She was used to this. On most nights, as she videotaped him for her final year project on ‘Creative Minds’, he would go about painting as if she didn’t exist. They hardly spoke.

Today, however, he sat on the sofa; lost.

 “It’s strange!” He started the conversation.

“What?”

“I can’t think of anything to paint.”

“Why would that be?”

“I don’t know,” he stared at the uncharacteristically empty road from his window and said, “Something is missing tonight.”

‘Alone’ is a state of affairs when you miss sounds that you have become used to. For example, walking on the lonely road near GMP Block in XLRI does not make me feel alone. However, a lonely wing does.