Day 4

I woke up fresh next day, looked towards the next room to see two twinkling eyes greet me. I was making my way to the bathroom, when I heard my uncles discussing about the looming hartal in the state. In Kerala, hartals with a community clause are brutal and those after a string of communal murders in the district, the place were tense. What ensued was that the function lost its luster, for only we close relatives and others who had landed up the previous day were the only ones there. Not to be deterred by the low crowd the religious rituals went on in their own platonic fashion. Morning breakfast was pretty good, and I was expecting a good lunch. Man, Kerala food is awesome. Functions? They are usually boring, unless you have someone special to watch out for and try out for a cozy little chat.It was late in the afternoon, around 4, when I asked my dad “When are we returning home?” . You should have seen the angry grin on his face complaining as who will take the risk of driving in this violent situation. I led my hands forward for the keys. His grin only got wider. What was I even thinking? Well, doesn’t matter as he thrust the keys in my hand. My move got another group of people also moving. Guess two vehicles on the road together was safer!

I was going to miss the fragrance though, as she was going to be in the other car. She had to leave the state, which meant the two groups would drive together half of the entire journey. She just waved her hand as I turned the keys on my car. We had moved only a few 100 meters and I could see burnt tires on the road. My dad’s frown was deepening. After a calm drive of about 5 kms, is suddenly stopped the car. My dad looked at me questioningly, then gazing at the bricks on the road, he understood the problem. I got down, looked around. Not a soul in sight. Picking up courage I began moving the bricks of the road. Uncle stepped out from the car behind, but I had moved enough bricks by then. Our journey resumed, only to be stopped by groups of bricks at least 5 times in the next two kms. On one of the stops I noticed her worried look sitting in the car behind. I gave her a reassuring smile that we would finish our journey safely. The next 20 kms were anyway safe as we were on the highway and the highway patrol police kept it pretty safe. It was after this part of the journey when we deviated into a side route did a cold shiver pass through my body. Lying across the entire width of the road was an electric post. Damn, my weak body wouldn’t enable me to move it even an inch. Nah! Not all the men in both the cars could move it together. I turned the keys on the car, my dad game me a confused look as he couldn’t figure out my plan. I took the car off the road onto the field on the left and drove through the field and came across back onto the road after covering over a span on the electric posts. The only problem was that the rest of the road was literally dug out and it was pretty rough on the cars tires. Thus cutting off roads, moving bricks the ordeal continued until we reached home. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I got in home but then a worry crept in me as to the fate of others in the car that moved further forward. Watching the news made a chill run through my spine and I constantly looked at my phone waiting for an assurance of the safe conclusion of her journey, with a wait for a call that never came as the dreadful day came to an enigmatic close.

DAY 3:

“…..The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove……” is all I remember of murmuring early morning when I heard my mom’s platonic voice asking me to get up. ‘2 mins, I’m having a nice dream’ I replied. Get up if you want breakfast is what she snarled. I instantly got up, man I would anything for food!!! What I forgot to mention to you all was the tense situation brewing up in my hometown due to a community clash. There were rivers of blood oozing out in practical brutality, but that day it was uneasily quiet outside. As my dad handed me the car’s keys, I noticed that my dad wasn’t particularly happy about travelling to our ancestral home, but the function next day was something we couldn’t miss. The main purpose of my visit down home wasn’t any soul searching, it was this function only. It was a pretty interesting long drive, in the uneasy calmness of the road lurked the darkness of an unpredictable future. Whatever that feeling was I managed to safely park my car after the long drive at our ancestral home. I could see close relatives around and youngest of my cousins ran to greet me.

As I carried him in my arms and walked towards the pandal I heard a sweet voice singing one of the popular local rhymes. My heart raced and so did my legs to know the source of the sound. A smile lit up on my face when the sweet lavender fragrance lured me again. As she finished her song my cousin sister ( well I’m lucky I’ve many cousins with so good friends ;) )introduced me to the supposed to be stranger friends of her. “You sing beautifully. I thought……” I couldn’t complete the sentence as my dad’s presence held me uneasily. I walked out to play with all my cousins who had gathered there. My face was glowing with happiness as I was especially glad I was there. We all were engrossed in a game of football outside the pandal when suddenly sanjana came and joined us in the game. Man! Gal+football, things were getting weirdly interesting. We all sweated it out in the really hot tropical weather. We were thoroughly engrossed and wouldn’t have stopped unless our parents really ordered us to march off. The day ended pretty fast, and as night set in, I found I couldn’t catch any sleep. I was tossing around until I noticed her wide awake in the adjacent room. I called her out, and we both found ourselves taking a quiet walk on a calm night. It wasn’t exactly full moon, but it was pretty bright. But we both enjoyed the brisk walk holding each others hand in fields nearby. We shared few light moments and walked back so that we wouldn’t have someone searching for us. The night set in pretty deep, and so did sleep.

Day 2

As I woke up in the morning, with the still on its bumpy route, turning behind I found both the seats empty. Was it all a dream? Nah! On m wrist was still that black band that had slipped from her hands to mine last night. I rejoiced the fact that it was real and sobered the fact that she had already got down. I picked up my cell to call my dad to pick me up at the bus stop. My heart was jumping with joy as I was closer to my home and the fresh smell of earth from the last night’s rain soothed my soul. My dad was there on time to pick me up and take me home where the woman I worship most in my life, my mom, was ready to pamper me one thing that is most important to me in life, food!!!

Not to be disrupted by wayward dreams and myriad wishes, started my laptop gave sigh looking at the desktop and opened up Netbeans. Started working heavily on Java ( had a blog to update you see), taking occasional breaks and deep breaths still in the memorandum of the lavender fragrance. My dad came up to remind me to take rest as there was going to be plenty of action at our ancestral home in the function I had to attend. Only too happy to take rest, I mulled myself over to a dreamy world with me and ahem me only( Ok fine I admit, there were occasional glimpses of beautiful dimples and …)