My Scribble Pad

Friday, November 25, 2005

The Meeting (Part 1 )

The phone bell tore into the silent hot afternoon when she had slipped into a light slumber. A bit irritated and wearied she dragged herself to the hall and picked up the receiver.

"Hello Can I speak to Ms Devaki Nair"
"Yes this is Devaki...Who is this?"

Devu couldn't remember the rest of the conversation clearly. As she put the receiver down she felt the room spinning
Is it possible? Can it be true? Or was this a joke? she thought.

hurriedly she took out a set of kurtha from her cupboard and slipped into it, washed her face and ran the combed through her already tied hair. She put on her rimless glasses and grabbed her purse and house keys as she slipped into her shoes. Before closing the house she took a last took around just to make sure if she didn't miss anything. Well it was more of a habit for her to take a last look at her house and see if the balcony door has been closed or if she forgot to switch off any lights or fan.

Outside the sun was merciless and it was unbearably hot, she waved to a auto and asked "Jalvayu hospital, Tilaknagar?"

The auto sputtered on blowing the dusty road. There were not many people or vehicles on the road. Even the shopkeepers had kept the shutters half closed while they enjoyed an afternoon siesta filled with small sweet dreams.
E7 ,Ward 12 was all that was in Devu's mind. She still remembers the first time when they had met. The memory is so fresh in her mind that it felt as though that it just happened yesterday. But that was actually 8 years ago when she was just 19 young and he had just passed out of naval training and was on his first official posting.

She was the wild horse, untamable, rebellious and alive. He was the good looking adventurous guy who created a thousand ripple in every gals heart. She was sent to live with the nuns in a boarding school in this small city. Her father thought that a convent education will make her a lady and change her outlook towards life. Surely did her life change but not the way she expected it to be.

Sunday was the only day the gals were allowed to leave the boarding premises but had to return back to the convent at sharp 9.00pm. A minute later than that would mean severe punishments and also being grounded for the rest of the month.

So on this bright Sunday evening she took a bus to the city market to borrow some books for the local city library, she didn't know that her life was about to change 360 degrees. The city market was about a hour and half bus ride away. The nuns had made sure that the girls will not have any kind of distractions by setting up the convent far away from the hussle and bussle of the city.

Once Devu reached the city she got some books from the local library and went straight to her fourth coffee shop. The old man at the counter quickly recognized his favorite catty customer and promptly brought her a hot meat croziants and a cup of coffee, her usual order. She sunk her teethe in to the delicious crozziants and took a sip of the coffee and had immersed herself in the new novel she had picked up from the library. A sudden crashing sound across the road kill her attention aways from the book. Across the street she saw a crowd gather up instantaneously around a big large bus. Suddenly there was a lot of commotion on the road people were shouting and some were banging the exteriors of the bus and somewhere thrashing the bus driver and the conductor.

The coffee shop owner told her that the bus driver had run over a rickshaw fellow and he died on the spot. By now Devu could see that the some people had stopped another ongoing bus and had started breaking the windows and winsheild of the bus, they were asking the people to get down and threatened the driver that they will burn the bus if the bus moved even an inch. The commotion seized after an hour or so when the police came and arrested some people.

Devu thought that now it would be safe for her to start her way back to the convent. When she went to the bus stand some one told her that due to the arrests and the accident of the rickshaw fella all the bus services have been cancelled. Its seems that this had become a political issue and some shit.
Devu looked at her watch -7.30
"If I don't reach the convent before 9.30 I will be screwed"

She decided to walk a little further and see if she could get a rickshaw, but due to the commotion with a possibility of a riot none of the rickshaws were ready to venture out. She decided that she will have to either ask for a lift or will a have to make it on foot all the way back. Asking a lift was a bit risky especially during such a tense situation at the city so she opted for the later.

Walking out of the city was rather peaceful with people but as Devu left the city and went deeper into the outskirts she regretted her decision. Walking alone wasn't really fun either. And to top it it was getting dark and there were no street lights either. She cursed the government for all this.

A couple hours later Devu knew that she wont make it on time to the convent and doubted if her aching legs will move an inch further. Just then she heard the sound of a bike coming towards her direction. To save her almost paralyzed legs and the nuns punishment she held out her hand and waved to the bike. But the bike just zoomed by and didn't even show any sings of stopping by. She looked back at the fading image of the bike and just sat down on the road with a thud.

Small pearls of tears rolled out of anger and frustration. As she wiped her tears giving her self a pep talk she could hear the bike again now coming from the opposite direction. She turned back to see the same bike coming back and it slowed down, stopping a few feet ahead of her. Devu reluctantly walked towards him.

"Excuse me Can I help u ?"

Well actually yeah could u please drop me to my convent?
"I had gone to the city library and due to some problems in the city there were no transport to get back. Can u help me please."

"Well sure hop in"
"By the way my name is Kartic"

"I am Devaki"

Posted by Viewer :: 2:48 PM :: 13 Comments:

Post / Read Comments

---------------oOo---------------