Lets make it short - I

“Amma … I’m leaving for work, come and shut the door”
“Mini , has Adi left too?”
“ I’ve no clue Amma , just check if his laptop is still in the room”
“Really now, what kind of generation are we living in, in our times we used to know our husbands by the beat of his heart”
“Right.Bye Amma”


“Coffee?” pinged a message from Surya. It was 11 already? God , and she had’nt even started on that document .. when was the team meeting due …oh right , Friday.
Mini started walking towards the lounge to find Surya leaning against the bay window, their regular coffee hang-out.
“Whats up, Sue??”
“Nothing much, the usual, met another matrimony guy ..”
Mini smiled. “This must be the better of the phases?”
“Mini , he’s this numerology freak and he thinks I must change my name to Suryaa Kumari , like the name isn’t bad enough already!”
“Maybe that's one of quirks .. what does ..”
“We should so go shopping today , Mini!! There’s a cottage industry fair at M.G.Road!!”
“ No Sue .. it might rain and Amma might get really worried ..”
“Oh come on Mini , I’ll drop you home!”
“…”
“AT your door-step?? And do pranams to your mother in law so she doesn't think I’m a muscle oozing yellow tee shirt wearing moustache endowed man??”
Mini dimpled.
“Can anyone really say no to you when you’re in one of these moods?”


“Yeh kitna bhaiyya?” That was Sue picking a horrendous looking yellow and pink “Ikat” duppatta.
“Sorry , memsaab no for sale hum pack up kar rahein hain”
“What!? What kind of salesman are you??”
“Woh humne socha train 9 bhaje ko tha , ab patha chala 6 bhaje ko hai madam …miss ho gaya tho bahut gadbad hojayega”
It was already 5 and the poor man was frantically stuffing all his wares into gunny bags and looking hassled.
“Come on Sue , lets help him..”

Mini and Sue bundled the rest of the clothes into sacks while the salesman went in search of an auto.
“You know what ,Minzie , we could steal a dozen of these Ikats and he would never know!”
“Which is why God sent him back with an auto.. quick bundle them all in with him”
“Bahut thank you very much madam , aap ka patha dedo , hum call karega , agli baar sale hua tho..”
“I just have my visiting card .. yeh rak lo..” said Mini with a smile.
“Happy Journey!”
“I’m too famished now Minzie , lets just head home ?”
“ Yes , please.”


“Mini...” called out Amma as she came out into the garden with two steaming cups of coffee. The afternoon sun trickled down the branches of the mango tree making little patterns on the book that Mini was reading.
It was coming… She felt it .. Now…?
“How’s work going on , Mini ?”
“Its ok Amma, a little stressful”.
This said, would definitely clinch it.
“Its time you and Adi settled down and had children”
“Yes, Amma”...Did that sound too mechanical?
She added with a smile “Soon you will be playing with your grandchild on this very swing!”
“When did Adi say he would be back from his tour? In 3 weeks? Seems by far the shortest tour he has been on…
Mini?? Oh well.. go on with your reading , I’m going inside”

February 3rd , 12:00 AM
Her cell phone started blinking silently.
Mini covered her hand over the mouthpiece while grinning into it.
“Sue!”
“Happy Birthday , Minz .. Have a fantastic year ahead!”
“Sue , you could have told me this on a less absurd hour? Thanks so much for the wishes…”
The third of February. A day whose mention always had a ring to it. Her birthday.

She reached office early. On birthdays and wedding anniversaries Amma strictly forbade her from coming into the kitchen.

“Mini madam, aap ke liye parcel hai”
Who could it possibly be she wondered idly as she signed the counterfoil.No.. wouldn’t he be in transit..?
It was a brown paper parcel which read “Yamini Rao” in hindi.She opened it to find a beautiful hand woven ikat scarf in brilliant shades of red and orange. Atop it, was a letter.
It read “ Is saal ke pehle batch ka pehla piece.Us din ke liye shukhriya”.It signed off “Barabankiwaala”

It was going to be a Happy Birthday after all.

Of walks and bungalows

Yesterday was the kind of rainy day that reminded you of a rather annoying relative.The one that would crib in your ear constantly while you watched the proceedings of your cousin's wedding.Anyway , the point being yesterday morning was irritatingly rainy.Although the rest of the day made up for it.

SRC and I set off on our post-lunch walk at 1:30.We scoffed at everybody who was piling into the office when they could've set off on a lovely walk like we were.SRC said something to the effect of age and marriage doing that to people.In my hurry to catch the cab(owing to the irritating morning) , I had forgotten to wear a belt.So I hurried behind SRC while holding on to my jeans.

The walk was strangely peaceful.Without random voices talking about releases , builds, bugs , defects and everything else that is akin to an IT conversation.Just then,the cloud above us jiggled its belly and sent a huge shower our way.We ran towards a construction site ,and this is what we found.





Men at work ...















Toiling hard at what kids their age do best ...

Play!








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SRC , Gee and I make up stories while we are on these walks.There are a couple of lovely bungalows next to our campus (It being a special economy zone or some such).Apparently the sites cost the Raja's turban , his crown and even probably him.There is one beautiful bungalow that we spotted on one of our walks.I cannot stop raving about this house , remind me to when we meet , if ever we do that is.While we are on that , why didnt ANY of you comment on my Dostana post? Tell? Considering it was my best friend forever's wedding eve and also considering that I was so depressed.BAH.Hmph.
Anyway , coming back to the house , what is it you say? You didnt know what to say?Well of course you didnt.Which is why you didnt.Hmph.
Okkk now , the house.Its this heavenly looking house , and guess what!The designer has incorporated a boulder ,yes you read right.There's a little boulder thats been included along with the compound walls ... almost as if the compound is hugging it and saying come come , we be bhai-bhai.There is an open space on the first floor thats covered all over with bamboo blinds , and a huge portico that has wooden pillars ,stained glass windows, chimes.. oh so sigh, I could go on.We came up with random theories for the owner of the house.That it belonged to a successful,single,independant woman in her late 40's .. the Dimple Kapadia slash Rekha kind.I offered that it could belong to a Rekha kinda woman , who probably taught Kathak on the portico.It could also belong to a thirty something man , successful , cool , sauve , with elements of Farhan Akhtar in him , the kind who went horse riding early in the morning(heavily inspired by Agatha Christie , Daphne Du Maurier and the likes).I wondered if he would also have a philandering brother who tried smuggling diamonds from Kimberley which was the reason why the boulder was where it was?Gee thinks I should marry the horse rider and invite her home and give her some diamonds.SRC meanwhile keeps looking out for a pair of mynas and she invariably spots a lone myna and curses out loud that her release is going to be doomed because of the silly myna that forgot its pair.

Its lovely to be 13 again.

Game

“Hello?...Nalin?”
“Akki , meet me at 8 for dinner?”
“Ok..Khej”
“Done!”

At 7:30 Pm , Akanksha shut down her computer , signed out and started towards the parking lot . It would take a good twenty minutes to drive down to Indiranagar , with just about 10 minutes buffer time for the Airport road signal .

RADIO CITY! blared the FM.
“Welcome back to Route 91 and this is Darius” blared he.The next request is from Varsha who says “Hey Darius ,I’m madly in love with my ex-boyfriend and I would like to dedicate a song to him and he is currently going out with my best friend.So, I’d like to request a song from Bewafa….”.

Akanksha slammed down the accelerator and cruised down the inner ring road.

8:15 Pm :
“Aks!Sorry am late..left office a little late”
“Lemme guess..you left at 8?”
“Hehe!...U know me so well and yet you always come on time , Aks?”
“Habit..So tell me , what’s eating you”
“Hold your horses , Aks , lets order first.Waiter!”

“Boliye, bhai saab”
“Ek Tandaai , Do Ajwain ke parathein , ek dal , Ek Kulfi, Do Lassi”
“Aks, anything else??Aks?”

Nalin turned around to find Akki gazing at some paintings. This place was an old haunt of theirs. Very strategically located, in between both their work places .It was owned by a renowned painter , and sometimes the painter would sit in the porch near the entrance and paint .His paintings usually depicted women , mostly with the emphasis laid on the eyes ,sometimes on the nose-ring , or even the anklets, almost always with a shayaree attached. One of them was Akki’s favorite.

It was that of a woman staring at the sea and it read

“Kya naam dein ab is zindgi ko hum
ek dard hai, ek aah hai, ek nasoor hai aur kuchh bhi nahi.

jab bhi kho jate hain teri yadon ke manjar mein,
koi pukare to akser kahte hain yahi,
na jagao awaz de kar kuchh lamho ke liye
dard soya hai abhi ”

“Akki , come on over . Stop staring at it with your big eyes, the glass might crack!”
“Tell me Nalin, what’s up?”
“Its about Keerthi.”
“Keerthi from office?”
“Which other!Yeah , her .I’m planning to ask her out tomorrow . What do you say?”
“Hmm .. not a bad idea. You could get to know her better .Just ask it in a nice manner .Don’t sound too needy ”

Nalin cleared his throat.
“Ahem , fair Keerthi , will you come with me to dinner tomorrow?”
“No!”
“Pleaaaaase!Pretty Please!”
“Nalin!”

“Akki!”

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“How went the date , Romeo?”
“Better than expected..She actually turned up!”
“So , do you like her?”
“Don’t know yet Aks , lets see tomorrow, another date..Hehe”
“Same girl?”
“But , of course!What do you think of me!”
“Where did you go by the way?”
“Rice bowl”
“Thought you hated Chinese….Her idea?”
“I don’t hate Chinese per se…yep her idea”
“Yep , you don’t hate it per se..just that you would have stopped at the starter and finished up with dinner..”
“Doesn’t matter Aks , will take her elsewhere tomorrow”

************************************************************************

“Ms Akanksha?”
”Yep , tell me, Hussain”
“Nalin sir is at the reception”
“Tell him I’m coming”

“Akki! C’mon lets go for a cup of coffee!I’ve got important things to discuss”

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“So , do you think I should do it?”
”Don’t you think it’s a little too early , Nalin?”
“Its been 4 months , Aks. And I think I’m pretty sure . And I cant keep dating her and not say anything at all.”
“Its still just 4 months , Nalin , how many dates is that ?24 dates? 2 hours each? 48 hours?Thats like knowing someone for 2 days”
Nalin looked away as he bit his lip whilst swirling his cup of coffee.
“You know what our problem is , Akanksha?”
Akanksha looked steadfastly at Nalin’s eyes…Habit.
“You think you know everything. You think you can sit up on a pedestal and call all the shots. You are never supportive about anything I do!”
“So what do you like most about her , Nalin?”
“From the top of my head , well, she’s very understanding.Sometimes this irritates me you know , Akki!Its like she’s absolutely spineless!”
“And oh!She also likes Chinese …”
“I ABHOR Chinese!I have half a mind to kill all the Chinese in the world.I’ve had so much Chinese that I can actually speak the bloody language with all those dorky door-men!”
“One more thing , Akki. Frankly tell me what did you think of her when you met that once?”
Akanksha smiled.Her slow smile with her eyes transfixed on Nalin’s eager face.
“Well…”
“I promise you that it will get better .. now that you are going to see more of her”
“Yes”

Only time will tell.

Nalin signed the bill and got up.
“Thanks , Aks , you’ve been such a brick!”
“Nalin ,you got some change for the parking?”

************************************************************************

“So here we are!”
Akanksha looked up.Nalin was trying to break the ice.Time to do something about it.

“So , Keerti , Nalin tells me so much about you that I simply had to meet you to believe it”
Keerti looked straight into a pair of large steel grey eyes and smiled.
“So then , we’re even stevens”
Nalin looked on.The two most important women in his life.
“Waiter!”

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The painting looked exquisite .Especially against the setting sun .It was a year since she last saw Nalin.Had she really loved him?Yes , in parts .He had a wonderful sense of humour and he could drag you up from the doldrums in no time at all. A big heart that was child like and innocent . She missed those eyes .

Nalin … was he really worth going through all that ?Nalin , who could be so easily swayed by anything anyone said . Nalin ,with whom it would be so easy to seed a doubt in . Yes , I did the right thing..I couldn’t have fought her all my life .

Some women are like that . Mysterious. Enigmatic.The more Nalin tried to know her , the more she didn’t let him.Dear God , I hope he never does…

~~~ ~~~~~~~

“4 letters , down, for an amusement or past time ,hunted for food or sport”
Nalin looked down from his lap top. His darling wife was propped down leaning against his feet and trying to solve a crossword puzzle.
“Akki , how about a candle lit diner tonight?”
“Game”