'Look Ani...the weather is not so good...look at the dark sinister clouds hovering...a storm is coming...'
I uttered with a cautious restraint, knowing fully that insistence on my part could lead Ani...my childhood mate, my soul companion, completely haywire. After all we had left our township on bicycle some minutes ago and Tanya's house was still a few kilometers. We would have to cycle it real fast if we were to reach there before sunset.
Ani, my eccentric love sick mate, was hell bent to find a short cut to Tanya's house, more so because he had a kind of curio piece in his shirt pocket as a token of his overwhelming love. He had no idea whatsoever how he would give it to her. He had made no plans about that. But he was typically persistent in going there right away and dropping it someway or other at her doorstep.
'If her father comes out with his gun?'
I asked Ani feebly once, chewing the peppermint chewing gum given to me by Ani as a kind of advance payment for accompanying him. 'More rewards would follow after the mission' Ani had told me, dropping hints of giving me his prized Phantom comics books. My eyes glistened with the prospect of having a whole series of Phantom comics at my roof top attic. So...without pressurizing too much I just gave him the weather forecast and followed his red BSA cycle.
Ani was pedaling hard.I followed suit.
By the time we reached the temple from where the road would take a turn to become narrower and perilous because of two ponds on both sides, full of mud and soft boggy ground, it started raining profusely, accompanied by lightning. It became really dark. A few lamp posts were there but they had no such powerful luminance to beat the darkness accentuated by the blinding rain.
As usual we had no rain coats. We both were drenched to the skin within a few minutes. But Ani, like a mad...a possessed freak, pedaled even harder and I, just followed him out of a strange fear of losing my friend into an unknown territory. We pedaled. At one point both of us realised that we could not make out where the road was because the two ponds had already overflown and in the darkness all we could feel were floating hyacinths all over the road. Suddenly I saw Ani, who was a few inches ahead of me falling down...sort of sinking into the road. Even before I could make out what was happening, I also felt my cycle sinking.
'My god! we're into a pond Ani!'
I cried out, terrified.
Ani was already half way down. I could see him sinking steadily. Me too sunk halfway almost, still precariously sitting on my bicycle. But I could feel water and slush entering like cool liquid into my trousers, my pockets, wetting my inside.
'What to do?'
I asked, thinking of leaving my cycle to the pond and somehow swimming over to the bank.
But in the dark it was really difficult to find where the bank was.
'Help! Help!'
We both started shouting aloud.
I felt I lost one of my shoes in water and the other could slip away soon.
At that time some boys going past the place. They were surely amazed to find two boys swimming in the pond in a rainy evening with dresses on.
But soon we shouted louder to make them realize that we were not at all swimming.
After they pulled us out and our cycles from the pond they had a good laugh at our idiocy. Then one of them asked where we were going to.
Ani suddenly took Tanya's name and they took us there.
Tanya was shocked to see both of us, covered with slush and mud and without shoes, braving the rain, to arrive at her house with a gang of local boys accompanying us.
Luckily Tanya's dad was not at home then.
Tanya's mom offered us to get freshened up. I was willing. But Ani was not. He was simply clinging on to his shirt pocket and nodding head both ways expressing strange reluctance.
'What's in your pocket?'
Tanya asked seeing Ani clutching on to his pocket quite awkwardly.
'Nothing...'
Ani became a shy cat.
'He got something for you!'
I blurted out, out of excitement.
Tanya's mom looked at Ani first and then to me and then to Tanya before going inside casting a suspicious look again to Ani's shirt pocket.
As soon as she went inside the house Ani brought out the curio piece, a small copper statue of a dancer and in trembling hands gave it to Tanya. Tanya took it and smiled.
Just then a lightning crashed.
I saw Tanya and Ani staring at each other, kind of hypnotized, dumbstruck.
I pressed my bicycle bell twice.
'It might rain again dude! hurry up! '
I said, not very loudly, but with a kind of softness, full of indulgence...and moved away from the spot, allowing the two to marvel at the statue and the lightning and the rain.
I uttered with a cautious restraint, knowing fully that insistence on my part could lead Ani...my childhood mate, my soul companion, completely haywire. After all we had left our township on bicycle some minutes ago and Tanya's house was still a few kilometers. We would have to cycle it real fast if we were to reach there before sunset.
Ani, my eccentric love sick mate, was hell bent to find a short cut to Tanya's house, more so because he had a kind of curio piece in his shirt pocket as a token of his overwhelming love. He had no idea whatsoever how he would give it to her. He had made no plans about that. But he was typically persistent in going there right away and dropping it someway or other at her doorstep.
'If her father comes out with his gun?'
I asked Ani feebly once, chewing the peppermint chewing gum given to me by Ani as a kind of advance payment for accompanying him. 'More rewards would follow after the mission' Ani had told me, dropping hints of giving me his prized Phantom comics books. My eyes glistened with the prospect of having a whole series of Phantom comics at my roof top attic. So...without pressurizing too much I just gave him the weather forecast and followed his red BSA cycle.
Ani was pedaling hard.I followed suit.
By the time we reached the temple from where the road would take a turn to become narrower and perilous because of two ponds on both sides, full of mud and soft boggy ground, it started raining profusely, accompanied by lightning. It became really dark. A few lamp posts were there but they had no such powerful luminance to beat the darkness accentuated by the blinding rain.
As usual we had no rain coats. We both were drenched to the skin within a few minutes. But Ani, like a mad...a possessed freak, pedaled even harder and I, just followed him out of a strange fear of losing my friend into an unknown territory. We pedaled. At one point both of us realised that we could not make out where the road was because the two ponds had already overflown and in the darkness all we could feel were floating hyacinths all over the road. Suddenly I saw Ani, who was a few inches ahead of me falling down...sort of sinking into the road. Even before I could make out what was happening, I also felt my cycle sinking.
'My god! we're into a pond Ani!'
I cried out, terrified.
Ani was already half way down. I could see him sinking steadily. Me too sunk halfway almost, still precariously sitting on my bicycle. But I could feel water and slush entering like cool liquid into my trousers, my pockets, wetting my inside.
'What to do?'
I asked, thinking of leaving my cycle to the pond and somehow swimming over to the bank.
But in the dark it was really difficult to find where the bank was.
'Help! Help!'
We both started shouting aloud.
I felt I lost one of my shoes in water and the other could slip away soon.
At that time some boys going past the place. They were surely amazed to find two boys swimming in the pond in a rainy evening with dresses on.
But soon we shouted louder to make them realize that we were not at all swimming.
After they pulled us out and our cycles from the pond they had a good laugh at our idiocy. Then one of them asked where we were going to.
Ani suddenly took Tanya's name and they took us there.
Tanya was shocked to see both of us, covered with slush and mud and without shoes, braving the rain, to arrive at her house with a gang of local boys accompanying us.
Luckily Tanya's dad was not at home then.
Tanya's mom offered us to get freshened up. I was willing. But Ani was not. He was simply clinging on to his shirt pocket and nodding head both ways expressing strange reluctance.
'What's in your pocket?'
Tanya asked seeing Ani clutching on to his pocket quite awkwardly.
'Nothing...'
Ani became a shy cat.
'He got something for you!'
I blurted out, out of excitement.
Tanya's mom looked at Ani first and then to me and then to Tanya before going inside casting a suspicious look again to Ani's shirt pocket.
As soon as she went inside the house Ani brought out the curio piece, a small copper statue of a dancer and in trembling hands gave it to Tanya. Tanya took it and smiled.
Just then a lightning crashed.
I saw Tanya and Ani staring at each other, kind of hypnotized, dumbstruck.
I pressed my bicycle bell twice.
'It might rain again dude! hurry up! '
I said, not very loudly, but with a kind of softness, full of indulgence...and moved away from the spot, allowing the two to marvel at the statue and the lightning and the rain.
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