before the rains, 14

there was drizzling and the grass got wet, but it wasn’t the rains really, just some. my neighbour’s wife sends more water down washing her balcony.

so we sit there like that and get wet.

now the man, he’s got a clean look about him, everything in place, hair, shirt, shoelace, buttons, cufflinks – i mean for someone lives alone and talks to me only – cufflinks,

weird.

and with his neat fingers, he draws his map in the mud complete with landmarks. it’s got leaves, sticks, stones, pebbles and what-not he’s picked up from the park. nuts

we huddle over it and he looks deadly serious and points at two odd shaped pebbles in the map, these,

cloud, these
are our apartment blocks, you start here
and ride north down
the park the f block market left
from the main gate, and down here
the bus-stop. here call-centre girls are growing frisky because it's evening
and it's time.

they think you're a movie star with the wind behind you. but you're just my cloud,
on my map,
no?

before the rains, 13

then, he pulled out two cigarettes from his trouser pocket, right one, and a matchbox from his left pocket, lit up, and smoked for a while. i made a few calls, one to my brother who heads sales in a mobile company, and one to my mother who lives in gurgaon.

it’s amazing how you remember some things and forget so much. i don’t remember the man’s face. but i remember him drawing out a detailed map to her house with his finger, on a wet patch near the bench. i remember him advising me to avoid the office hour, the traffic, cp in the evening. I remember him saying go early and have a drink at volga.

and i remember him smile as if he could see me sitting at volga with a beer. and i remember him say, it’s a good place to relax, it’s got large windows, and when it rains outside, you can drink yourself dead watching the waters run down the panes slowly all evening.

i even remember me asking him where tunisia was, and him chuckle.

that's when the sky cracked up bright like a carnival and the kids in the park and the girls all ran for cover to the trees