12 - July - 2012
Post a heavy Sunday Buffet lunch
from Indigma, on a reclining chair on my patio, I relished the summer lights
making ways through the hanging pots of full bloom petunias.. Multi-coloured
bell shaped flowers evoke the spirit of Holi back home in India. A reverie was
to unfold.
Part 1
Walking through the N. Charles’s
street, my eyes landed on a frock on a mannequin inside the “BULLC”. The chest
piece made of black satin, with the frills of black and white polka dotted
stain starting at a higher level with an umbrella cut and spreading uniformly
to all directions. It’s just till knee length with a black border. Wow.. I loved it.
I had this fixation for
Polka dots since the late eighties when my mother used to wear a polka dotted saree. I used cuddle hide inside her saree pallu
when she reached back home from work. Is this in fashion again?? I mused
staring at the mannequin.
I equally loved someone with long straight hairs.
Straight hair in a ponytail knot is something I adored in Maggie, a high school
classmate. My less known characters are I prefer home-made food and I like
people when they speak less.
Monotony prevails when you reach
office and starts with your virtual world of outlook. The parquet floors were
rhythmically responding to a gallop when I looked up to see “her” in the very
same Polka dress which I saw yesterday. She was a fair, with veins on the neck
visible for naked eyes. She had dangling silver earrings and matching
bracelet. A small “Louis Vuitton” black
shoulder bag, a leather folder and a high heel – shoes completed her
attire. I knew I was floating like a
puff of cloud and my thoughts savoured the till date unfamiliar realms. I knew
I was standing up to get a better view of her. I was hapless when my
apprehension made me numb to answer the questions of this new employee, and
when someone at the next desk was quick enough to direct her to the HR
room. As I invented newer ways to
interact with her, in six months I married her. She was Lisa, my first wife.
I loved her anklet, the sound it
makes when she walks around, like the wind bells. I spotted her curly short
hairs on the first month of our marriage, which shocked me. I ignored that she was talkative person and
my answers were mostly, yeses or hmmms..
She cooked amazing food and I loved the sea food she made. When she
shortened her hair in another six months, I was upset. Then I am happy with her Polka dress, I
assuaged myself. But when I saw, the
Polka dots has lost its shine, the black dots has merged with the whites, I was
totally angry. I was not rich for alimony, so I took a loan.
Part - 2
3 months post-divorce, I was back
to my solitude and living on pizzas and frozen foods. I changed my apartment as
I was unable to afford the rental. I sold my car and mostly walked or biked
myself to office.
Then I found “her” standing at a
Safeway counter. She was facing the biller and I could see the long straight
hairs in a ponytail. She was wearing a Capri pants, a t shirt and shoes. I
thought I can buy her a polka dress. To my own surprise, the desperate me,
gifted her, the same, for her birthday in 3 months’ time. She was Alice and I
married her in a few months.
Though we lived in the same room,
she had nothing much to talk as she was as quiet as me. She never cooked at
home. So we ate out mostly. Till this date, I have not seen her wearing the
polka dress. All I am left with are her ponytail, a huge debt, my grey hair and
grey life. Or is it totally a black life?
Yes, its dark, already 10 PM. I
have slept a lot in my life. Stll, back to bed.
Thank you Mr. Akhil Mekkat for the painting.
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