Thursday, March 16, 2006

Phloot!!

Click, Clack,
Click, Clack,
Click, Clack...
rings the hall with the on and off of the ballpoint pens on so many hands.
Click, Clack, Click, Clack... one of the refills in one of the pens in the hall is constantly being pushed in and out. The others join in.. Click, Clack, Click, Clack, click, Clack.

The speaker doesn't hear it. He is a thin bespectacled man with neatly combed hair, slightly graying at the corners, speaking in a low soft voice. He holds an old model of a Sheaffer pen - 1960s, the kinds you don't find the in the market these days. This, he points at the last row of kurta clad girls and beckons them to join Rama in the first few empty seats. The girls stick to their chairs at first but slowly bring up their thin bodies in crisp churridars and shuffle to the first row directly under the man's nose.

Silence. Click, Clack. He speaks something, "............................". Silence. Click, Clack.. click, clack.
Phloot!! goes the bubble gum. Silence. Someone has blown out a bubble gum and it makes an unintentional loud Phloot!! And this time he hears it. And the hall goes silent. And the ball pens go silent too. "Who was it?" he questions in a louder voice. Blank faces stare back at him.
After a few awkard moments of silence, he resumes his talk, "............................................" and the ball pens start again, click, clack, click, clack, click, clack ... ...

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