bypassing the leaf

"Of all the people you meet, you take a little piece with you. Just a little one so they cannot feel it.
To all the people you meet you give a little piece of yourself. Just because you have enough, little pieces of yourself.
All the people who are far away and waiting, you send them some glimpses of pieces sometimes, you tell them about these pieces of people, you show them some other piece of you than they already know.
And that`s how we all become happy pieces. Bigger than we ever could`ve imagined. I think all this is called inspiration."

This is what I was writing in the train that would take me to Varanasi in a little less than 48 hours.
I didn`t even finish writing the `n` of inspiration and suddenly there was this boy.
Just like this.
He said bonjour but wasn`t a frenchman.
He asked me what I`ve been taking a picture of. Two men holding each other`s hands, I said. And that was the start of a conversation that skipped the normal questions. Because we didn`t have much time and apparently we had some things to talk about.
Seven hours we spent together.
We`ve discussed the end of the world, he assured me that Jupiter is in the fifth with me. The fifth what? The fifth house of course. Where? In the stars apparently. Because I am not really worried about material issues and still I always have enough to live.
We`ve also discussed the purpose of life.
About dying we talked and coming back after having died and then being more grateful that you live.
He told me about his plan in Chennai.
Apparently once there have been very powerful psychics, Rishi`s, who`ve written down in Sanskrit, on banana leaves (Nadi leaves), the past, present and future of about half of the current population in the world. Everything, who you are, what you do, when you`ll die, the names of your friends. Thousands of years ago they`ve `seen` that. Exactly because they don`t believe in `thousands of years` and `ago`, I assume.
Going to look for his leaf, that was what my temporary travelmate was going to do.
Because he was a bit confused he said. About how that works, fate and predestination.
When you learn something or you have an insight, he said, then it is already known that you will have that insight. Also the insight that that insight is predestined, appears already to be predestined. He wondered if there is really nothing beyond this predestination. A way to bypass the leaf.
Also religion was on our topiclist. About the devil we talked. And his friend. Who were watching the people from a mountain. One man found a piece of paper on the floor and started glowing, out of happiness, joy and peace. The friend of the devil asked the devil what that man had found. The devil said : the truth. The friend of the devil said that that was not such a good thing for their case. Now a lot of people would find the truth. No problem, answered the devil, I will go down and help them to institutionalize it. The friend laughed and said O. O yes, said the friend.

Then there was also a boy, an Indian boy who was suddenly sitting next to us, pretending to read a book.
There were transvestites who slapped our head (not mine actually, but that of all the men). Everybody seemed to be afraid of them and gave them some money so they would go.
The Indian boy joined our conversation and said that he was more into technics than philosophy. I didn`t find that a problem, not at all.
It came down to this that the three of us wondered what was good and bad and how you can live without control because that`s what Krishnamurti had written in a book.
Well, said my travelmate, you just try not to do the do`s and don`t`s that society wants you to do and you just do and don`t what you think is the best to do and don`t. But I started to be a little bit hungry and allowed my attention to wander away and let the boy continue asking my travelmate a lot of questions. The boy was of the Jainreligion but had left it, rebelling against the imposed norms and rites. And now he didn`t really know anymore who or what he was. Apparently he seeked a teacher and found him in my travelmate. I let them. The boy was a confused boy. But an intelligently confused boy.
I ate my rice and vegetables which I had prepared the previous night and fell asleep.
That was normal because I was tired, what was also normal because I only slept for two hours the night before because I got on the train in Mysore at 4.40am.
During my nap some Indian men had been watching me with big eyes, said my noble stranger. So he decided to stay near to me while I was sleeping. Having a brother for a few hours, that`s how it felt. Not unpleasant.
But that I will be sleeping here without him near me and that probably those men will still be having big eyes, is true and what can you do? I try to cover the body with my shawl as maidenly as I can. Much more I can`t do. I remain a woman. From the west.
My brother spoke about a place in India with a tree with monkeys and a river where the sea runs into and not the other way. And I could see that place.
What a very nice and powerful encounter. Maybe it is written on his leaf.
I read his hand while I can`t read hands. But he believed me and I myself.
Sometimes we didn`t speak for a while and then we did again, that was also normal. And what we do to earn our money, we didn`t tell. But I don`t care about money anyway because my Jupiter is in the fifth.
We came to the conclusion that coincidence is a nice word. Co and Incidence. That was this encounter.
Thank you.
Bye stranger.