Fifteen
Vidya. Vidya. Vidya - her name rang like an alarm in my head. I ran through
tomato sellers and marble playing kids to reach her house on time.
I had tons of work. There were waiting suppliers, stuck stocks and unattended
orders. However, Vidya's thoughts dominated them all. A part of me, the logical
part, told me this was not a good idea. Businessmen should not waste time on
stupid things like women. But the other irrational part of me loved it. And this
part controlled me at the moment. Where is Vidya? I looked up at her window as
1 pressed the bell downstairs.
'Govind,' Vidya's dad opened the door. I froze. Why does every male in the
family of the girl you care about instil a fear in your soul?
'Uncle, Vidya ... tuitions,' I said.
'She is upstairs, on the terrace,' he said as he let me in. He picked up a
newspaper from the coffee table. Why do old people like newspapers so much?
They love reading the news, but what do they do about it? I went to the internal
staircase to go up to the terrace.
He spoke again as I climbed the steps. ‘How is she? Will she make it to the
medical entrance?’
'She is a bright student,' I said in a small voice. ‘Not like her useless brother,’
uncle said. He buried himself into the newspaper, dismissing me.
I climbed up to the terrace. Vidya stood there with an air-hostess smile.
'Welcome to my al fresco tuition place.'
She went and sat on a white plastic chair with a table and an extra chair in
front 'I had so many doubts,' she said, flipping through her notebook.
Smoke came out from under the table. 'Hey, what's this?' I said. 'Mosquito coil,'
she said.
I bent under the table to see the green, smouldering spiral coil. I also saw her
bare feet. She had her trademark pearl-white nail polish only on the toenail tips.
'The coil is not working,' I said as I came up, 'I see a mozzie party on top of your
head.'
'Mozzie?'
'It is what they call mosquitoes in Australia,' I said.
'Oh, foreign returned now. How was Australia?'
'Great,' I looked at her. I tried to be normal. I couldn't, not after that call. I had
opened my cards already. No matter how close I held them to my chest now, she.
had seen them.
I noticed her dress. She wore a new purple and white bandhini salwar kameez
today. Her necklace had a purple teardrop pendant and matching earrings. She
had freshly bathed. Her hair smelt of a little bit of Dettol soap and well, her.
Every girl has a wonderful smell right after a bath. I think they should bottle it
and sell it.
'You brought my gift,' she said to break the pause, or rather to fill up the
silence as I checked her out.
'Yeah,' I said.
I stood up to take out the match box from my jeans pocket.
'Blue Orange Cafe, cool,' she said. She took the box and slid it open with her
thin fingers.