The Spaces Between Pages

Few weeks ago, as I was browsing through the shelves in a local bookstores, I came across a picture of a couple, two people, a man and a woman, standing beside each other, smiling at the camera. At first, it was one of my many bookstores finds that I secretly treasure and archive, so I ignored it, but as I was going through my finds recently, I had to rethink the integrity of my assumption. To assume a man and a woman standing next to each other, to be a couple, in a romantic relationship seemed preposterous, but it was my first assumption nonetheless.

They could be friends, siblings, neighbors, colleagues, they could be anyone. Perhaps they died right after they completed reading the book in which I found their picture, or perhaps they were in fact a couple who married and lived happily ever after.

In the spiral of thoughts that followed, I had to keep aside all my other works and think of many possible outcomes of the lives of strangers who might or might not exist anymore. But their memory does, their smile is still alive, and is making someone think of their story. What could it be? Read More