12th
May 2015
MOMOS!
Yes, that was what she was craving for.
Like many of the other evenings.
As she walked down the road, she was
visibly cheerful. Looking up at the cloudy afternoon sky, she was humming her
favourite song, enjoying the breeze.
Ah, there it was! She was almost beaming
when she found her regular momo stall on the footpath. ‘Bhaiyya, veg momo
plate’, she almost chirped, as the friendly vendor gave his familiar smile and
greeted her.
She was into the pleasure of relishing each
bite of her steamed delicacy, when it started drizzling, heavily. Yes, it was
in the middle of the summer. But it was Bangalore, one could never predict the
weather. And that year in specific, had evening hail showers almost after every
annoyingly-hot sunny noon.
She tried to fit in the large umbrella of
the momo stall. The busiest road of Koramangala looked chaotic as people ran
across to find shelter in the Hanuman temple and a small restaurant. As she
watched one of the longest traffic signals (Sony Signal) turn green, she turned
to find several vehicles honking loudly. The white car just on the other side
of where she stood didn’t move. She saw the driver leaned
back on his seat, eyes closed. He was not moving!
She almost panicked fearing the worst – maybe
he had a heart attack, maybe he was dead or unconscious. She crossed the road and
rushed to the other side and hurriedly knocked on the glass window of the car. She
was getting wet in the rain and she could barely see anything through the
slightly foggy glasses. The few anxious seconds seemed like minutes and the
driver woke up startled. Whoa, a huge sigh of relief!
‘He was asleep? Asleep? Why didn’t I think
of that?!’, she thought. Before the driver understood what was happening and
steered away, she signalled him to pull over on the safer side of the busy
road. Confused, he let other cars pass by and slowly moved off the lane and got
out of his car.
She got a good glimpse of him, for the
first time. White shirt almost neatly tucked in black trousers, a confused yet
calm face with dark-rimmed spectacles. He must have been about thirty, but she
could see strong worry lines on his forehead already.
“You fell asleep on the-‘, she started
telling him and he said, ‘Sorry, I’m really sorry, but-‘, he said at the same
time.
She gave a little giggle and reached her
hand out to shake his. “I’m Manisha..nice to meet you..”
“I’m Reyansh..Err..thank you so much..
Sorry, I ..I..kinda fell asleep for a jiffy, I guess”, said he, with a
I-am-a-bit-embarrassed-now-but-thankful smile.
“That’s okay, but ..you are okay? I didn’t think
it was a great idea for you to drive now. I was a little worried.”
“No.. I’m fine, Manisha.. Thank you so
much.. I didn’t get to sleep much this week, it has been hectic.. but I’m
fine..I can drive back now”
“Are you really sure? Why don’t we have some
tea before you leave?”, she said and started walking towards the small tea
stall nearby.
“No ..no..I’m really fine.. I.. “, he followed
her, not very disappointed. He caught a glimpse of the faint rainbow that had
just formed.
“Chandan anna..iradu tea kodi”, she said to
her favourite ‘chaiwala bhaiyya’ and got two piping hot cups of tea and handed
one over to Reyansh.
She introduced herself to be a freelance
social researcher. She spoke about the weather, about momos, about how she
thought he was dead behind the wheel. He
couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked. It’s her smile and her kind
heart, he said to himself. As much as he wanted to keep talking to her and
thank her for being nice, he couldn’t. As he sipped his hot tea, he smiled and
looked out at the rain drops ceasing to drizzle. He felt time freeze and he
wondered why.
“Thank you so much, Manisha..I’m really
glad you stopped me”, he said, wishing he could express himself better. He was
lost. It was not every day that one gets to meet kind people like her, he
thought.
It was less than ten minutes since he had
met her. Minutes that had made quite a difference.
Before he could ask more about her, he
noticed she seemed ready to leave. She paid for the tea, tossed her empty paper
cup into a bin and hurried out, telling him with a bright smile, “Please drive
safe.. Great meeting you, Reyansh”.
As he sipped his tea complete, he couldn’t
help but smile and blame him for not being proactive enough.
‘It wasn’t a bad day, after all’, he
thought.
25th
May 2017
He looked out at the window, at the
beautiful rainbow over the city. From his apartment on the 15th
storey, the view looked spectacular, especially on rainy days. As he sipped on his
cup of tea, he thought of all those times over the last two years when his heart skipped a beat on seeing a rainbow.
