A Day in the Life of.....

I

Okay so it's my dog's 4th birthday with us. The four years with Daku have been really awesome. He's my Aslan, he is my cutie pie, and he's also the one responsible for 3 anti-rabies vaccine shots that sometimes I have managed to get in between flights. 

We take him to Domino's. Ordered for a Spicy Chicken and Cheese Pizza for him. He loved it, of course. 

The guy at the counter takes my order and asks for my number (to feed in their machines, I guess). Instinctively, I take my Black Pearl out and say, "Can you give me yours as well? It'll be easier for us to place orders." The moment he goes, "9-9-6-7-," I interrupt: " I was asking for the Domino's number..."

"Ah, the landline, of course," he smiles. And I had to nod with a smile!

***

II

It's been an evening of  hard, beautiful rain.  My client decides to drop me till a point were I can get a cab/ auto. But during rains, most of the autos and cabs disappear from the face of my city. And the client wouldn't let me go till he ensures I am tucked in an auto. He drives around 10 kms away from his point of convenience, hunting for an auto.

At last we spot one. And by the time we reach him, he starts moving on, blissfully unaware of my urgency. It's close to 11 PM. I am worried about him getting back home through the traffic, to his wife and kid. My client levels the car with the auto, and rolling down the window, I ask the guy, "Mulund Checknaka......?"

He looks at me, asks me to repeat and says, "Take the bridge, and then turn first right," and whisks away.

***

III

Waiting for the autos further back to my place, around midnight now, a middle aged guy asks me if we could travel together. His place was further than mine and he offered to drop me. I said fine, since I was waiting for almost 45 mins. 

So we started hunting for autos for his place. He offered me his umbrella till then. I was wearing a light blue white shirt. I was relieved at his second offer. 

We got the auto, and he asked me if it was usual for me to be this late, returning home and all. I refused, citing rains and traffic as the reason for the delay. Before I could tell the auto guy to stop for my point, this guy says that he'd drop me first at my home and then take the auto back at his place. I accepted his third offer too, albeit hesitatingly. 

Now there's quite a bit of distance between the point I was supposed to get down and my home. I had decided to walk it out. The guy observes the distance and asks, "You were planning to walk all this way?"

"Umm... Yes... No other option, right?"

"Are you a black-belt?"

***

Targets and Poetry

She comes as the rain, in a township of clouds.
The heaven tumbled upwards, waiting for a new ruler.
The brown earth could never make love to the green.
He was waiting for her to rain down.


Kritika looked at the random lines she'd just written. Lot of clouds, rain, heaven, she thought. Well what can you expect when you've been flying non-stop for over 72 hours, she lamented back. She sighed, looked around the almost empty flight. There was nothing much to notice on this afternoon flight. To her right sat a girl with long hair, and longer nails, presumably first time on her flight: she asked a woman sitting in front where the lavatory was.


In front of her, there was a woman with a child, a girl of about seven, paying devious attention to Kritika: she asked her about her lipstick, her finger ring, rows with blue trapeze diamonds, and her mystery-shade-of-blue shoe. To her back, sat yet another woman with a child, a boy of about ten, voicing the effect of the altitude on his stomach every time the plane gained or lost a few feet.


Kritika sighed. The window seat bored her; it was bright and sunny outside and most of all, her migraine was nagging her about her writer's blog. She soon spotted the problem: the businesswoman in her was handling her artist's targets. She sighed again. There was nothing she could do about it.

Coming up...