I was reading the Ice Candy Man one chilly afternoon and decided I needed a cuppa chai to go with it and headed for the cafe which happens to be right behind where I stay. I settled in to a comfortable couch, in one of the corners inside next to the counter.
A couple of tables to my left, a gang of three.A girl and two guys.were huddled around a chess board. The guys were ruminating, taking their time over what they intended to do next, while the girl looked on with defocussed eyes. Wonder what the equation between them was...Who was the girl rooting for? Were the guys playing coz that's what they'd been doing every weekend of the last few years or was there something more there being played for..
A group of 4 boys, with the first hint of a moustache on a couple of them, were seated right opposite where I was. All of them ordered tall frappes...Cold..In this weather? And they talked a lot over them. Nothing I was the least bit interested in, but I couldnt help catch the occasional segments. I had finished reading all of 3 lines in the book, when they piped in Mehndi on the speakers.
I got up and moved out into the balcony, where they've a few chairs looking out to the road. It was now past approaching 4:30 PM. The shadows of the motorists had lengthened and there was a life like quality to them.They seemed more alive than the motorists themselves. The light was soft, warm ..like a Simon and Garfunkel poem...
The noise ..yes.. the noise.. honking, revving engines, shuddering buses, was there when I sat down. Ayah was being carried away by the Ice candy man and slowly, as the narrative panned out, the white noise in the background was replaced by the Ayah's pleading and by Lenny's silent shrieks ....
A little while later, and well into my second cuppa chai, I was distracted by movement on my peripheral vision. It happened to be a couple who'd just walked in and were looking for a place to sit. The chess players and their companion had not moved. One boy had made short work of his frappe, the other three still hadnt finished theirs.
They settled for a spot in the corner, where the light was just right. They were a new couple...One could just tell. They changed seats all of 4 times before they decided on a couch where they could sit just the right distance from each other..not too close..not too far...
I went back to finishing my book as the sun tipped over. I read the rest of it in one stretch....
