Monday, November 26, 2007

Rolled Down

She startled me . I dropped my Mocha. That was the last thing I needed after a long day.
I was furious and did not want to spare a single rupee for a smelly street urchin who had ruined my perfect coffee .
She wasn't among the ones who give up easily. She persisted. I screamed at her . The loudest I ever had.
I sat back in my car . Rolled up the window . She spat on the window.

She had second thoughts about ruining a perfect Sunday and spending a day in a remote village teaching kids.
Sure she had always wanted to do this . She found about ASHA a month ago.
Now there she was . A hot day . She wished for rain , so that they would cancel the whole thing.
But she knew it wouldn't.

I had detailed and washed my car just the other day . I was furious.

They were all of the 20 kids. Some of them bored .Some of them eager . Some of them just glad that they didn't have to work that day.
She was struggling to think of a Hindi word for 'addition' .And then
one of the kids asked her (in Hindi) ... Does everyone in your house love you?
No one had asked her that before. It was always a given .She realized though, that she couldn't ignore it like she would ignore a rhetoric . She replied yes and asked the kid , "Aur Tumhe?"
"Haan agar Ghar hota to jaroor pyar karte , didi" .

I rolled down the window . She spat on me.


5 comments:

A.G.C said...

wow maan...amazing writeup! the juxtaposition is mind numbing.

Anupama said...

Great post...I love the last line! And yes the style of writing too...Kudos!

gypsy said...

the imagery and expression is fab...

Sur said...

different, very different! the post hits you literally!

aneeket said...

Thanks all... tho not an entirely faithful reconstruction of events... these do stem from true experiences :)