Like a sudden jolt of electric current ran through her body, she woke up with a start – gosh! Where am I? she had ordered a plate of momo: the belle type with 5 kinds on a single plate. And it was there on her desk, neatly wrapped in a food wrapper. The delivery boy had also left the bill tucked under it – he should have woken me up! she murmurmed. She felt for her watch on her wrist – shit, she’d forgotten it – then instinctively glanced up for the golden Orpat beside the door – 7.15pm. She had forgotten to switch on Federer’s match again. She had slept through it. She couldn’t believe it! she had waited to watch the match all year long, and she had slept through it – she had slept through the finals of Wimbeldon and that too on such odd times of the day!! She had never before winked a nap at 5ish! It was mad!!
The feeling of disgust was showing on everything she did after that. The momo: seemed to be rotten as if her regular belle had been minced with something else. Rotten veggies maybe. She carried her back pack down the empty white stairs and through the hallway, where customers flocked by on working days. As she punched her check out card, she dumped the momo: down the wooden bin.
************************************
Outside, the sun shone bright to hit her eyes with a torturous glare. She crossed the street before a whizzing bike. The rider shouted an abusive remark to this hard-headed lady who crossed the road before a speeding motor bike – You Mad?! She got a minor sadistic pleasure at having made someone else irritated too. A plate of Pani Puri – she ordered at the counter before taking a seat beside the window. The seat was warm under her and the sun rays now hit her. She could take this for a while – just a while. Then she will have to move from this seat, it would be just too hot.
The mouth watering pani puri in front of her calmed down her mood. These broken potato filled puchkas with salted water had a different charm to her. Vanilla? 21 Love? Very very strawberry? She checked for ice cream – no-thing ma-am just butterescoh - and that’s what she had.
As she gazed out at the busy streets below, she realized that she liked a good street view while eating out alone – maybe because it gave her a feeling of engagement, maybe it gave her strings of thought for her next blog, or maybe she just liked to see people in action, or maybe she liked the variety the view of the real life window gave her as opposed to directed-blinkered TV shows. As these things were playing in her mind – it flicked channels to a lady in blue and pink patiyalas. This lady walked briskly across the street with a filmy breeze on her open long thick well-maintained hair. She noticed her shoes as she stepped out a white Toyota car – pink too. Wo! She thought – that’s cute.
With the last panipuri shoved in, she made a mental note to sew a patiyala some time this diwali – maybe she will ask her brother on bhai tika.
No comments:
Post a Comment