I didn’t notice her at first. She was half hidden behind the cart filled with products, engaged in arranging the display on the lowest shelf in the art supplies section of the hypermarket at the mall.

I was there looking for stencils with squares, rectangles, triangles, polygons, and anything else interesting. Circles I didn’t need, I had them in plenty. Walking up and down the aisles of the section, I had already picked up a few other things, but the one thing I needed, was being elusive.

My eyes fell on the figure crouched behind her piled cart.

“Excuse me.” I said. “Can you tell me where the stencils are kept? I can’t seem to find them.”

She withdrew one from among the things on the last but one shelf and put it on the top of the boxes on her cart. It was one of a long petalled flower.

“I am sorry, that’s not what I need. Do you have other shapes…”

Before I had finished, she was walking. I grabbed my cart which was already filled with the grocery shopping for the week, also shampoo, bathing soap, some sticks of lip gloss, paper towels and other necessary things, and raced after her, trying to keep up. She was fast, that one!

She turned left at the end of the aisle and disappeared from view. I quickened my pace and turning to the left saw her walking down the next aisle. She stopped briefly to check a shelf. I wondered if I had missed the stencils when I looked through thIS same section earlier. But apparently not, for she walked on while I tried to keep up by deftly dodging other shoppers coming the opposite way.

She had now stopped at the end of the aisle waiting for me to catch up. I was getting close enough to ask her if she had found the stencils. But I didn’t. Something seemed wrong. I could feel it in my bones.

Watching her from behind, all I could see was her hair tied in a tiny bun, her maroon collared uniform shirt and the strings of the light coloured smock tied securely behind her waist. And yet I could feel the desperation and forlornness. I felt it wash over me, and I felt my stomach muscles tightness and my hear sink.

Who was she? Was she young or old? I had barely glanced at her when I asked her for the stencils. My eyes had been too busy combing the shelves. From behind, all I could see was that she was slim and trim, and she held her head high.

I remembered noticing a guy earlier asking her to be somewhere or other in the building, and she mumbling a reply from behind her cart. That seemed a normal exchange. Was I wrong that she seemed utterly sad now? Nah. I am rarely wrong having a sort of sixth sense for these things. I realised with a start then that she had probably been trying to get away from me and be alone. What had I done? Raced after her thinking that she was going to show me the stencils. Me and my stencils, bah!

Glancing at her, I noticed how she was discreetly trying to wipe her tears. Omg, she was crying. My heart went out to her. What had happened? Was it a break up? Was her mother sick? Were her children okay? Did she have financial problems? Was she losing her job? I felt physically ill.

I stood there awhile not wanting to let her know that I had been running after her. Why embarrass her further? She was already crying at her work place and trying her best to not let anyone know. I pretended to look for more things on the shelves this side of the aisle and that. I felt miserable. I wanted to say something that would ease her heart. But what could I do? Moreover if I said something would it distress her even more?

A decent time had elapsed by then. I slowly pushed my cart past her. When I was in line with her, I noticed that she was a pretty young girl. Her kajol-lined eyes were slightly red, and so was her beautiful nose. I looked straight at her and said, “Don’t worry, it will all work out.”

©️ Shail Mohan 2026