“But why can’t you? Why can’t you just forget about eternity and worry about the short few years we have here? Why want an uncertain, maybe even improbable, eternity, when you can have a certain, and guaranteed, present pleasure?”. As Enakshi asked the question, her eyes wandered, around at the street. These weren’t questions she usually asked boys, and definitely not on the first date.
Sai lifted up his head and waited for Enakshi to meet his gaze. “I get glimpses. I get glimpses when I listen to a beautiful song. I get glimpses when I see the joy a baby brings to a family. I get glimpses when… I get glimpses when I look into your eyes. Each one of those glimpses, each one, gives me hope, nourishes my faith.”
Enakshi didn’t know what to say. She too had asked these questions before, a long time ago. She didn’t know others did, though. She thought they were for vagrants and wanderers, and she didn’t want to be a vagrant or wanderer. She wanted to be stable. She wanted to be secure. But asking these questions made her unstable and insecure.
Now, here she was, on a date with a man who ticked off all her boxes, who seemed like he was going to give her that stability and security, but then be able to turn everything upside down by asking questions, those same questions she told herself shouldn’t be asked.
They walked in silence for a block. Sai was terrified. He didn’t know if he had gone too far. It’s the first date. Why am I going existential now?
