Hearing those words brought about a sense of solemness on his face.His eyes widened, his gaze sharpened and his voice was deeper than I'd ever heard. A part of me was afraid of what I have unlocked in him and at the same time a part of me was excited to see this new side of his.
"It started when i was a boy, he began. "During my childhood I was a sick one. I wasn't sick during early childhood, rather he was a lively, playful country boy.As fate had it, my family had to shift to the city for better livelihood options.And then it started, my health began to deteriorate as time passed by. I had repeated attacks of Asthma.Whenever I went to sleep all I could see was the image of me with a nebulisation mask on. The nightmares became frequent and I was afraid to go to bed. Back then, it felt like i was holding myself responsible for the polluted city life, but now when I think of it , I guess if my parents felt that they were responsible.It took me sometime to understand how I could help myself and once I did, I made up my mind to contribute to Climate change prevention as my cause",he explained.
There was a brief silence among us. My mind was pacing through all the words that I'd learnt and yet I was unable to construct a sentence that could break the heaviness of what he had just shared.
I took a deep breath and said,"You've been fighting hard, and your cause will require you to fight harder, but with the right people it'll be a good battle.And I want to be one of those people fighting it beside you".
He smiled. A huge one. Behind that smile was a hint of nervousness and uncertainty. The rest of our colleagues joined in and asked "Guys,are we going home yet?"
Home?right, it was 5pm already. We headed back to our place, and as we did I couldn't stop admiring the sun. A beautiful orange hanging by the sky and below him it seemed like the sun was calling all the vehicles on the road back home with him. It was a marvelous sight that reminded me of that encounter that I had had with him a few days back near the bus stop. "It's been a while and a lot has changed in me since then but for now we shall all sleep and prepare ourselves for the greater cause", thinking that to myself I dozed off into the warm night.