Essay: An Untitled Encounter

Mainak Gupta gives us a glimpse of a tender moment in life that can warm up the heart on any cold night.

Chance encounters, fleeting encounters, encounters that could have been something more than encounters on a different day or in other circumstances. But what remains of them today are mere flashes, wishes, and, in some cases, glorified, romanticised longings long after the time has passed.

Pardon my unnecessary poetic language. Somewhere, subjects like these do not deserve the Hemingway style. Baudelaire is the guy for this. “A une passante” is the poem that comes to mind. This poem remains true even today to people who live in metropolitan areas and big cities, probably more so than when Baudelaire wrote it. Not only in corners of the street, but in trains, buses, public spaces, or offices. Most of these encounters are as quickly forgotten as they are experienced, but some of them stay a little longer.