Day 10 - Encountering Stories

As I sit in Pisa waiting for my flight to London, reminiscing the soulful, daring, scary and overly joyful experiences that I have encountered in the past ten days, I look at this friendship band on my hand that a stranger just tied on my hand with true love in his heart. Although I had planned to pen down my experience of backpacking across Europe in a chronological order in this blog, however, the story that I encountered today needs to be penned down now.

The past ten days were nothing less than an adventure of a lifetime and it would not be an overstatement to state that this trip has definitely set the bar very high for me, in terms of travel, experiences, learning, meeting new people and encountering soulful stories. Traversing through a plethora of landscapes from the sea to the mountains and the dry lands in every possible means of transport from the bus to the train, the ship, the ferry and the airplane, my eyes 'felt' it all. For the first time since I started learning photography on a DSLR, I did not carry the DSLR with me. I wanted to see and traverse everything through my eyes and not the lens. It was good although I did miss the DSLR sometimes. Not important :D

So not diverging much and coming back to the purpose of this blog post as I also need to check-in soon, I just encountered one of the most kind and warm souls. As I was on my way to the airport after seeing 'some of Pisa', my eyes stopped on this particular roadside stand. This man, about 50 years old was very intently making and customising unique things out of different coloured wires on a roadside stand. I couldn't stop myself but stare at him (sometimes I also wonder at my weirdness in behaving socially). Then the following happened:

He: Hello!

Me: Hi! Can you carve a name out of this wire for me?

He: First, tell me which country are you from?

Me: I am from India. And you are from Pisa?

He: Yes, have been living here for a while now. Not used to seeing an Indian roaming around with a backpack here.

Me: (smiles)

He: So what would you like me to carve? You can write the same on a paper here.

Me: (writes on the paper and talks to him while he carves) So how long have you been making this art?

He: Several years. When I was young, I made this and then for some years I did something else but then I returned back to this.

Me: Great (some personal conversations around what he was carving).

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He: Here. Is it fine?

Me: This is perfect. Thank you so much!

(I handed the money with a thank you note)

He: Oh woww. Pick one of those friendship bands from me, whichever you like.

Me: No, this is fine. Thank you very much.

He: No, you have to take one.

Me: Okay then you can choose one for me.

He: (picks one and explains the meaning) This is the colour of Tuscany where you were just backpacking before this.

Me: (with tears in my eyes and a feeling of completion of a wonderful trip in my heart) Thank you. Can I have a picture with you?

He: Sure. Come in the shade.

(we click a selfie)

Me: Can I have your email ID so that I can send you this picture?

He: Sure. Here.

Me: Thank you and I hope to be back here soon. I will call you when I am here again.

He: Sure. Thank you. All the best!

And like this, this was one of the many stories I encountered during this journey. Oh that feeling of stillness, contentment and nothingness! Indeed, wonderful souls and stories reside in every corner of the world. We miss many of these for we do not wish to stop and 'see through the soul' (ken-sho).

Until next time,

"What is life if full of time you have no time to stand and stare."

P.S. Felice, if you are reading this, I want you to know that I go back home with a heart full of gratitude and love. You are a wonderful human being. Apologies if I have made mistakes in describing your soulful art.