Minnal Raja

She always gives me a big smile when she sees me and sometimes, an informal salute too. In return, I smile back and wave my hand. Her name reminded me of one of the names of an important character from The Lord of the Rings. Actually, it's exactly one half of that name. Though, in her case, I don't believe that The Lord of the Rings had anything to do with her name. One day, I saw a little girl sitting with a boy I knew. He introduced her as his sister. Almost instantly, I asked the first question that one asks little children "what is your name?". She said the same name. I thought I had misheard the name and asked her again. She repeated the name. I knew, in the case of the girl I talked about earlier, the name ended with two 'a's. So, I asked the little girl "Do you have two 'a's at the end of your name?" She shook her name in disagreement and spelt out her name. I smiled at the girl and her brother as I walked away from them.

Next day, when I met the elder owner of the name, I told her "Hey. You have lost a part of your uniqueness. I met a little girl who owns the same name as you." Her curiosity was piqued. She asked, "Where is she?" I looked around and saw the girl standing by a tree. I pointed at the little girl. She looked at the girl and said, "She looks sweet." I smiled and said, "Unlike your name, she does not have two 'a's at the end of her name." She responded "That's because my father wanted to name me thus, but my mother believed that my name should contains seven letters in it. So, they added an additional 'a' at the end of the name to make it seven lettered". 

The breakfast consisted of an uninspiring upma and a valiant chutney. I dipped the upma in the chutney before shoving it into my mouth. I shared the table with two of my colleagues, who were sitting to my right. In ten minutes, all the upma and chutney has disappeared from the plate. I checked my watch, and found that nine am was ten minutes away. I got up and walked to the tea jar and brought back a cup of tea. As I came back to the table, I saw that I had been sharing the table with two ten year olds too. They sat to my left and I had not noticed them. I looked at their plates and found them filled with food. The breakfast time was coming to an end, but neither of them seemed to be in a hurry to finish their breakfast. One of them was pushing the upma around the plate. He was doing what one of my friends used to call as heapifying the food. I looked at the boys and said "You are running out of time. Your plates are full of food. Why are you not eating?" Almost instantly, they responded with the standard response that anyone below the age of 18 gave when they were faced with a similar question. "No! I am eating." I looked at their plates in disbelief and said "What! Look at your plates." They looked at it and protested "But I was served too much upma." I refused to accept their words and said "It doesn't look like you have eaten anything. Come on! Eat up. We are out of time." The two boys took my advice seriously and got into the business of eating earnestly. One of the boys went about it well but the other kid continued to be obsessed with heaps.  He split his single large heap of upma into many small heaps. I said "My god! You are obsessed with heaps. Your plate looks like a Native American village with many Tee Pees in it." The comment did not amuse him. "I am tired" he complained. "I woke up at six this morning". I did not understand his complaint but before I could clarify he said, "usually I get up at six thirty".  Once again, I could not respond as the other boy swerved the conversation towards himself by saying "I wake up at five every morning. I do Yoga and exercise in the morning". I could barely get out an "oh" from my mouth as the boy's head was churning out words at 120 Hertz. He continued "in the evenings I go for horse riding. Sometimes I ride the horses in the beach and at the other times in the racecourse." 

The two of them became quiet for a moment. It had been many years since I was in a position wherein, I had to listen for long without speaking. So, I uttered the first thought that came into my mind "did you ride a brown horse with a white mark on its forehead?" The boy responded without giving any thought to the question "No. There is no such horse." The next thought that came to my head was "were the horses owned by you?" He gave me a don't be ridiculous look and said, "No". Next question: "do you ride the same horse every evening?" 

"No, different horses." 

"How many horses are there?"

"Eh! There's Malik, Bilal, Khalid and a she horse called Lalila. There is also a small horse called Minnal Raja. So, five horses."

"Minnal Raja is an interesting name. What are the colour of the horse?"

"Different colours. Brown, black, white."

By this time, the heaps on the other boy's plate had disappeared. He was feeling left out and decided to contribute "I too go for horse riding but only during vacations and holidays. I ride a horse called Blackie." By this time, my interest in horses had waned and I asked redundantly "Oh! You ride during the weekends, is it?" He said "Yes. And during holidays." I smiled at the two boys and said, "Alright, it's time to go."

A boy walked up to me as I walked out of the dining hall and said "I did not study everything you asked me to study yesterday. But I started studying and I will study it all ultimately." Almost immediately, my mind traveled back to my college days. One of my classmates was a member of the college badminton team. He played matches frequently and could not attend classes on many days. He was allowed to skip writing many tests. But he had to attend all the semester exams. This was an unpleasant experience for him. He did not understand most of the topics and he was not interested in the subjects either. As a result, his preparations for the exams started late. On the evening before the exam, I usually got a call from him. He started the conversation with "Machan, I want some advice da. Tell me da. What are important chapters that I have to study for tomorrow's exam?" Every time I heard this question, a chill ran up my spine for two reasons. First, how can anyone ask this question fourteen hours prior to the start of the exam? Two, what does he mean when he uses the word 'important'? Everything is important. But I did not let panic get the better of me. I responded patiently by reeling off the names of all the chapters in the subject. As soon as I stopped talking, he said "See Machan. I have been studying since lunch and I have completed two chapters. In the remaining time, I can only study three more chapters. So, I plan to study this, that and the other chapters. Is that okay? Is that enough?" A voice in my head screamed "No! It is not okay. What the hell do you mean 'is it okay?' That's only 25% of the portions. How can that be okay? And stop calling me Machan!" But I ignored the voice and said, "It should be okay da." Almost immediately, he responded "Thanks da Machan. You are my saviour da Machan. How is your studies going on?"  I responded "It's going okay. I am starting my final revision." He ended the call by saying "That's good da Machan. Study hard da. Don't waste time. All the best da Machan". (The last Machan was auto filled by Google's AI algorithm. The bloody thing is learning fast.) This conversation happened almost three or four times each semester. When I look back, I realize that all my studying did not make much difference. Though he studied for a much lesser time than me, he did not have any issue in getting through the course. Exams and studying are overrated.

That afternoon, they served Chinese food, I think. The rice seemed like fried rice. So, the Cauliflower pakoda like dish should have been Gobi Manchurian. I walked up to the counter and tried to pick a small bowl filled with the dish but person at the counter said "Ah Ah Ah! Go get the plate please. You can't take it without a fresh plate." I donned my begging expression and asked "can't I take one?" She said "No. Go get the plate." I got a plate from my table and picked a bowl full of Gobi Manchurian/Pakoda from the counter. As I was biting into the delicious cauliflowers, I heard the girl sitting on the opposite side of the table say, "I am taking one more". She got up and went to the counter. Soon, she came back with disappointment written all over her face.  She said "Sad! Only one cup per person."  Two young kids sitting in the next table got a brilliant idea. They decided to use fresh plates every time they went to the counter. This way they could cheat the person at the counter into giving them many bowls of the dish. Others on the table threatened them with dire consequences if they tried implementing their idea. They too sat back disappointed. I bit into another piece of the Gobi Manchurian/Pakoda. I said "The cauliflower is delicious". The girl studied the piece that she held between her fingers and said "Hmmmm! Yes! The flour is delicious. Very crisp". I corrected her "The flower, cauliflower is delicious. Though the flour is delicious too."