Monday, February 24, 2020

Wifey stuff

I was shocked to see a post from an aunt in the Facebook. It was a saying on a t-shirt, which read "Call me old fashioned but I learned to "take care" of my man, cook for him, clean the house, wear gloves, hide the body and act sad at the funeral. You know wifey stuff". I was shocked and I exclaimed, aloud I think "Oh my god! How could she?" (NOTE: I am old and old fashioned and hence am unable to say OMG instead of Oh my god.) I opened my contacts to call my parents. At that moment I remembered. My uncle (her husband) is alive and I had no reason to exclaim as I had done earlier. It was only an arbitrary Facebook share. 

Friday, February 14, 2020

Departing

Their world was falling apart. As a matter of fact, it was crumbling to pieces. They did not know how to live their lives anymore for the was too traumatic for for them to handle. It was so traumatic that they huddled together and cried. They hugged each other and rested their heads on each other's shoulders. The preparations for the day had started many weeks ago. They waited for the day of parting with a feeling of dread. 

Finally, the day arrived. They sat down in a circle and talked about the good times. They were sure that each of them would miss the memorable days. They swore that the days ahead will not be as good as the days of the past and then cried. The day proceeded with increasing sadness and finally the end of day arrived. They walked together as a group to the gate but did not proceed through the gate. They came back. They walked back to the gate and paused for a moment at the gate. One of the girls, left the group and walked towards the bus slowly. She got into the bus without looking back. The other looked at her for a few moments. They sighed deeply and loudly before turning around to tell her good bye. Each of them hugged and left without looking back. She watched them all go by before walking towards the buses. She looked into the buses and waved good bye to many. The buses started leaving. She stood at the centre of the road and let the buses pass on both sides. She looked at the buses with a sad smile. As the last of the buses passed, she noticed the girl who had walked away from the group first sitting on the last seat by the window. Her eye looked out of the window towards the distant sky. Her eye were brimming with tears but miraculously the tears did not flow down her cheeks. She had the look of Juliet pining for her beloved Romeo who, she thinks, lay dead by the lake, which was outside her village. The girl at the centre of the road was shocked to see her friend thus and raised her arm in alarm as she called out her name. The bus continued its journey and the girl turned around to look at the receding rear of the bus.

Saturday, February 8, 2020

Chalk man

The room had many soft boards. The big one at one end of the room seemed bigger due to the presence of a smaller soft board next to it. The smaller one was green in colour and the big one maroon. The wall between the two entrances to the room was painted black and used as a blackboard. Two soft boards occupied the space on either sides of the blackboard. As one stood facing the blackboard one observed that the soft board on the left was maroon and the one on right green. All the soft boards in the rooms had charts of various sizes pinned on to it. One chart had an images of the sun and cotton clouds on it. An A3 sheet had the drawing of a colourful pot. A large chart contained a number of sheets arranged in a tight grid each containing colourful patterns drawn on it. The maroon soft board to the left of the blackboard contained a black chart with many colourful round paper popsicles stuck on it. Below the chart, impressions of chalk made by a duster stood out like a sore thumb in the otherwise orderly room. On closer observation of the pattern made by the duster, an image emerge from it. It consisted of two legs at the bottom complete with a foot each, a vacant space above the impression of the two legs was left for one to imagine the presence of the body.  A head with a tall hat was placed above the imagined body.  Curves emanated  from the head and went round it. Another set of curves were seen around the legs.  The chalk man on the maroon soft board seemed to be in the middle of a ecstatic twirl.