Time For Celebration

BETWEEN THEM
Part 45

September was fading away... but in the hue and color that was always so resplendent of it....

Dussera time....

The market was all crowded.... Gauri was shopping hard.... Color streamers and electric lights and the ubiquitous dolls...

"Hey, hand that over to me... I am just carrying my handbag and can help you with that," Shriya nudged her... "Am anyway getting bored of tagging along watching you shop shop shop.... Come on Gauri, I want to have a strong cup of...."

"Coffee.... I know.... Heard that a million times at the cafe,"she laughed...."Here... Hold this .... And yes.... next stop will be that corner coffee outlet fine?"

"Thank you, honor!"

The two of them laughed their way across the road....


And then Shriya slowed....

It was the same old woman she had met in the temple, almost a month back.... She was walking towards them, a smile lighting up her face....

"Are you Tamizh?"

"Yes...."

"I thought so.... Remember me? We met at the temple...."

"Met" was a rather elaborate usage.... "Saw" would have been better......

"Yes... I remember...."

"I wanted to ask your name then... Bangalore isn't the place where you find girls dressed up decently and praying at temples.... girls your age....."

Shriya laughed... So did Gauri, who was listening in with growing interest....

"I am Shriya... And this is my friend Gauri"

"You settled here?"

"No...ma'am.... I work here... Am a lawyer... at a private firm... Living alone.... Hometown is Chennai"

"No formal stuff now... We are tamizh too.... Well... We celebrate dussera the usual tamizh way... And would like to have girls like you over.... Would you two drop in tomorrow?"

Gauri looked at Shriya....

"I have a client meet tomorrow.....," Shriya was wondering how she could ever refuse this woman....

"We will come the next day...., " quipped Gauri, even as Shriya looked at her with reproach....

"Fine.... You two come over to the temple... I will have you home from there...."

This surprised Shriya more than she could believe....

They wished her a respectful goodbye....


They did not speak about it till they were settled with their coffee in the cafe....

"Gauri... Isn't it ...."

"Strange? Of course it is.... I mean she walks up to you and calls you home for a festival celebration? Of course... Dussera is all about socializing.... but with a complete stranger? Even if it is one who looks docile.."

"Yes... And also...."

"She offers to pick us up and take us to her place.... When we could very well have found our way had she given us the address.... Why are you quiet now?"

"Because you are saying whatever I wanted to"

"Fine... Now you say it all over again....."

"Oh... Gauri.... Please.... Its strange..... And I feel real awkward"

"Well... We will go and see what it is all about"

As they left the place and walked back, all that occupied Shriya's mind was the woman's smile and her familiarity....

And of course.... The weirdness of it all...