Awesome Blossoms: Horn OK Please (13 page)

Amit then told his part of the story which now had taken a toll on his life and that he no longer enjoyed it. He rather admitted that he had never enjoyed the work he did. Series of thoughts came in his mind. He began to admit that in the process of getting good grades he never had given any serious thoughts on the learning part. He regretted his decisions during his college days and his decision to do MBA.

Amit wanted to change. He resigned remotely the very next day and never went back to the US.  His heart was taking the decisions now and his mind had taken a back seat. He realized that life was not just Profit and Loss, it’s not just clocking hours in office, it’s not just making money, and that it had a deeper meaning than what he had initially thought. 

Everything that he thought now made so much sense to him and he wondered what had stopped him from doing so earlier.

Sometimes, it’s advisable to give control to your heart. Try once, it will not disappoint you…

***
 

SECTION IV

C
HRYSANTHEMUM

By
Pallavi Nagalla

***

Mossy Stone walls around my garden,

There stands my faithful oak tree,

That broken tyre that flew me and my buddies to the skies

O broken rope, do you remember me?

There is my courageous strong ivy,

So friendly, so wild! …How comforted were we

Sharing secrets, hatching plans, brewing mischief

Under your secretive green canopy

Do you remember me, my daisies?

Your proud white heads bobbing in the breeze,

How we trampled your dainty stalks aside

As we slid down our treehouse slippery slide.

Oh, sweet and pure beauty of the valley,

My fair and shy Lily… have you my letters of love?

Do you treas
ure my empty chocolate wrappers.

Like I, those tears of heartbreak from the heaven above

Angelica, rosemary, jasmine, violet

Let me count those stolen moments time could buy,

There we sat my buddies and I,

that nature made table of dreams

Ambitions etched onto its growth rings, wish lists and theories

Stubborn Clover, we tried our luck, we failed, we lost we won

Hollyhock , chrysanthemum, zinnia my friends,
those were our days in the sun.

***

CHAPTER
TWELVE

By Pranav K

***

A village is a hive of
glass, where nothing unobserved can pass.

- Charles H. Spurgeon

No Change in Color

I
t was too cold to continue sleeping at this time in the morning. I couldn’t sleep anymore. I became an early riser only during the chilly winters when it became almost impossible for me to continue the slumber. The only other person who I thought could wake up earlier than me must be the milkman. Maybe God could also wake up earlier than that and that’s why we prayed so early, but I didn’t ask questions about these things because it made everyone so angry. Some say God never sleeps and I find that very strange. Why would God not want to sleep?

The sun
was already up. Everything looked mildly blue, bathed in the aura of dawn, except the ground here, that’s always the same color. Sometimes at night when the trucks passed by, I could see the ground clearly at night and even then it’s the same color. The sky changed color all the time.

I put away my quilt before I head
ed off. My mother
always yelled at me for not making the bed and leaving the quilt unfolded. My house was quite spacious actually; it’s got two rooms and a whole lot of space around it. So it made sense for her to yell at me, how else would I hear her? There were only 3 other houses in in my locality, with 2 rooms and they’re quite far away.

Far, that was how you measured distance in my village. Either things were near or they are very far.
I love running. I run everywhere.

It’s funny but I c
ould barely see my house from where I was standing right then. My dad did a pretty good job putting this house up. I didn’t know how he managed to build two rooms though. Like I said, my dad was a smart guy. He’s a tall guy and he’s very silent too, never said much, never argued; it’s like he had not much to say about anything. But he’s quite smart; he taught me how to use the axe and he taught me how to make ropes and how to build the roof, although I don’t think I can build the entire roof by myself, but maybe someday. The walls of the house were just like the ground; they didn’t change their color. My dad made a new roof at the end of every summer and it took almost two months for us to collect all the wood and sticks we need to make the roof.

I usually r
an to the main street to meet Akram and also to pick up a carton of milk for the house. The sand was nice to run on at this time of the day and since the sun was not up there yet, I didn’t get very tired either. I once beat Akram at race all the way to the
Kachch
Check-post. I even ran back. Like I said, I really like running.

I usually wash
ed myself from the big blue drum next to the milkman’s shop. Akram was late today. He’s not yet there, that guy slept too much. He even went to bed early.

“Khan
Uncle, Where’s Akram?”

“He’s not come yet. Listen, look there.”

Khan Uncle was a very sweet man. He never spoke much though; he’s always been very silent. Even when he knew that nasty Aslam was drinking his tea for free, he didn’t say anything. I think it’s because he thought he’s not a strong man. He’s kind of short and his hands and legs were also quite thin but that shouldn’t matter. I mean, who would want him to fight physically ? He could at least have said how he felt about something, right?

But his tea
was really good. There were 6 milkmen in my village and for some reason Khan Uncle made the best tea. I didn’t drink tea all that much though. My mother told me it’s actually not good for someone of my age.

Khan
Uncle’s old transistor was playing devotional songs, it must’ve been about 6 in the morning at least and here was a guy still sleeping on the mat outside Khan Uncle’s shop. He was darker than most people I had met and wore black trousers and a strange purple colored shirt that had a cap attached to it. Even the pants didn’t look like the pants I’d seen before.

Akram just ran
in to the shop from the side and we made our secret handshake. I told him about the strange guy who was sleeping outside the shop and Akram told me that he had seen a really fancy white car on the other side of the road. He thought there were more people sleeping in the car. We joked about these lazy people who have come all the way here to sleep.

One of them approached the shop and asked
Khan Uncle for a cup of tea. He was dressed in a very strange manner, a grey shirt that had almost no buttons except around the neck. Around his neck he wore some kind of scarf that was dark blue with bright orange, and he wore green checked shorts. He had a beard too. In his hand he held a big black box of some kind. At first I couldn’t really tell what it was, because even he held it in a weird manner.

Akram and I laughed all the time, we were even laughing now when we spoke about this lazy guy who was sleeping on the
mat. I don’t even know why we were laughing, just that it was a better thing to do. I saw the guy peer from over the counter and he smiled at us. Akram got shy and turned away almost instantly. That guy gets shy a lot. Even I almost turned around but not completely. But I couldn’t stop laughing either. The guy took his chai and walked to the empty mat that was next to the one where the other guy was sleeping.

He sat and sipped his tea. He took a few sips and then fished out something from his pockets. He pulled out a
local cigar and lit it with a lighter after keeping the cup on the floor. He then picked up the tea and continued to drink till it was done. He then put out the cigar and picked up his black box. He looked through it and started shooting. It had to be a camera, but it was the biggest camera I’d ever seen. He put his camera down and looked at us. Then he made some gesture over his face and pointed his camera at us. He took a few shots I guess and then called all of us at the store to step out. He made us all line up, everyone that was at the shop. Khan Uncle, the guy who drove us around to other towns in his jeep, the guy who delivered milk to Khan Uncle and Gafoor. Akram and I stood in front of them. He took a few steps back and screamed something. Then he went further away from us and screamed the same thing again. Then he came up to us and showed us the back of his camera and there we were! All of us, standing there in front of Khan Uncle’s blue-green shop that had the picket fencing. Even the other guy sleeping in front of us was there.

This guy looked at Khan
Uncle and said, “Uncle, can I please have one more cup of tea?”

Everybody then went back to minding their own business. Khan
Uncle went to make tea and the others went to the tea shop a few yards away. There were other men sitting at the other shop who were interested to know what had been happening.

Khan
Uncle gave the guy his tea and let him be.

Akram wanted me to go and talk to the guy and ask him to take a picture of us. He always wanted me to do these things, when people like that came by and stopped at our town. Every now and then some bunch of people would come, on bikes or in cars and would sleep at this little town because the idiot of a watchman at the check-post would not allow these people to go see the
Kachch
at night. Why else would these people come all this way?

Although I don’t understand why anyone would come here to this part of the world and see a barren land whose color has permanently changed to white. I’ve been there only twice and I don’t see why anyone would go there and I can’t see why there are those army people living out there either. Why would anyone want to guard that place at all?

Akram was still insisting me to go and talk to the man. I looked at the guy and he was still sitting, sipping tea. He looked at me suddenly and stared for just a bit before breaking out a small smile. He waved at me and called me over. I started walking towards him and as I just about approached him, I looked back and Akram was gone. I could see him escape from the side of the tea shop and run past the tree, across the road. Akram was like that - he would literally run away if he got scared or shy or something. He got shy a lot though and he ran a lot. Sometimes I think he can run faster than me.

“Do you want to see some pictures?”

I could only nod my head. I was smiling like an idiot. I don’t know why I respond to things in such a manner, at times; it’s just that I get so knotty. It wasn’t even the language, although he did have a funny way of speaking Hindi. I went up and stood next to him and he started showing me all these pictures of the places he was coming from. Places with trees everywhere, places with hills that were black and green and nothing else. Places where the ground was red and black and other shades of brown that I had never seen. Then he showed me pictures of temples built inside hills in caves and they had some very ornate carvings on the walls. He showed me decorated pillars, paintings inside the caves that were thousands of years old.

“Where are you coming from?” I asked him. I had to repeat myself thrice because I wasn’t loud enough. I don’t know why that happens either. Sometimes I feel like I’ve spoken but there is no voice coming out and the other person can’t hear me. I think it’s because I get a bit scared.

“I’m from Bangalore. Do you know where that is?”

I nodded and continued smiling like an idiot.

“Do you know where Delhi is?”

I nodded again; now beginning to actually feel like an idiot.

“Do you where Ahmedabad is?”

I nodded again, my smile obviously was no more on my face. It had left to find intelligence while I nodded at this guy.

“Look sir, I don’t know about the places you are talking about but I’ll tell you this, I’ve never seen any places like these. Your pictures are awesome. I’m from a very small town; I don’t know many things. You look like you are from a big town and you know lots of things. But why are you here?”

“I’m just traveling. Some friend of mine back home told me that the
Kachch
is very beautiful at night, so some friends and I drove here in the middle of the night to see it. It was a really beautiful night too, with half a moon and lots of stars. Too bad, that the watchman didn’t let us past the check-post. Then we drove around for a bit and then returned here. Everybody was tired so we just slept here and there. Some guy gave my friend this bed to sleep on. I slept inside this tea shop.”

“Travel? Why are you traveling? Just to see places?”

“Yeah, just to see places. India is a crazy place to see and there’s so much to see. If you ever get a chance to travel, just go. Catch a truck, bus, train whatever and get out of here. Go see what all is out there. Have you ever been to a city before?”

“I’ve
only visited one city preciously, it’s 40kms away from here. But there were too many people there. I got really scared looking at so many people at once. I’ve lived in this village all my life and I didn’t like the city one bit, why would I even need to go back? I only went to that city because I was really sick and the hospital is there. My father said that he took me there. I don’t really know how they can throw all those sick people in one place and then expect them to recover from the illness.”

“But I see you’re fine now and I think I know this city, I think we drove past it while coming here. That seemed like a very small city, where I stay it takes two maybe three hours to get out of the city.”

“That was only a small city?!” I got so freaked out there, I don’t think I ever want to go to a city. I mean, I have everything I need out here. I can’t imagine how I’d survive in the city. These cities seemed like crowded places. I don’t think I will have any place to run in the city. And if I don’t run I’ll just be very sad.

“How old are you by the way?” He had this weird smile all of a sudden. And his eyes opened wider as well. I think he was shocked witnessing my silliness. But, I think it’s only because he’s such a travelled guy and he talks about all these places I’ve never been to. I’m sure he went to a really good school.

“I’m going to be 11 soon”. I lied. I was going to be 10 in about 7 months. Don’t ask me why I lied.

“Do you go to school then?”

“No, I don’t go to school. I’m a woodcutter. My whole family does the same thing.”

“Ah, that’s probably why you don’t know where Delhi is.
So what if you’re a woodcutter? You can still go to school. Don’t go because I’m telling you to go. Just go so that you can learn new things. Learning is important right?”

“That makes sense. But what will I do
after learning all those things? After all that traveling and learning I have to go back home to my parents. Plus, the school has too many rules.” I paused for a bit, but the guy didn’t respond. There was this weird silence and I was feeling it difficult to listen to all that silence. “I’m old enough to work now. I should be helping my parents out. That’s why even I became a woodcutter. Out here there’s no need for money. We hardly save any money. All the land is ours as it does not belong to anyone else. We cut wood and give to people and we get everything we need, food, milk, vessels, and clothes. We barely save Rs.5 in a month and most often we don’t even need it.” Maybe I’d said a little too much. The guy had a shocked kind of look on his face.

“Where do you live then?” he asked.

“I live nearby only. If you walk that way from behind the shop for a few minutes you will reach my house.”

“Will you show me your house?”

I got a little wary about this guy all of a sudden. It felt like he was asking too many questions and now he wanted to see my house. Nobody has ever asked me to show them where I lived. Especially not some guy I’ve just met.