Dusk had moved on, and now night had caught up with us when we got to the snacks stall we frequented most days. The vendor, knew our orders and preferences by our faces now, and served us before other waiting customers. We obviously loved the treatment! As we sat down on our parked scooters, I noticed a small girl, not more than ten years old, standing all alone and talking on one of those fake mobile phone toys for kids. She smiled, and swerved her hips and legs, drawing semicircles on the ground as you would see girls in movies do when talking over the phone, and she kept up a continuous stream of excited chatter. Ample pauses were given for her imaginary friend to respond, and what must have been apt reactions to her friend's responses followed. I grinned at this, not everyday you saw a sight like this! A kid in the middle of the road talking unabashedly over a toy phone! I showed her to my friend and he too couldn't help smile. God, joy is infectious to us humans! But drawn by our more basic desires, we turned our attention to the smoking hot plate of pakoras in our hands. If you concentrated hard enough maybe you could have seen the steam lift the aroma of the food along with it and make a straight course to my nostrils, it made my stomach groan and mouth water.
I had started to feel my slutty taste buds revel in the curry soaked assault the pakoras had unleashed, when my friend interrupted the reverie, 'You want cold drinks?'
"You'll get them?" I asked, to lazy to go myself.
''Yep, what do you want?''
''Coke"
''Okay'' he put his plate down on his scooter and walked away to a shop around the corner that sold cold drinks.
The small girl looked at him walk away and then stepped up to me conspiratorially,"Is he going to get cold drinks?" she had stressed 'cold drinks' by stretching it with a cute escalation of her pitch. And this is when things got kind of weird for me, kids don’t step up to me and talk to me. They hover around glancing occasionally, that’s the best I've got till date.
"Yes" I replied.
"You will take cold drinks with this?" she pointed two tiny fingers to the plate my friend had set down, her big round eyes barely above the scooter seat.
I couldn't help smiling.
"Yes" I replied while trying to suppress a chuckle.
"Why?" Three questions she had asked me now. My heavily criticized terroristy-beard face, seemed to be approachable and likable enough to embolden this girl to ask me so many questions! Before answering, I made a mental note to shove this situation in the face of all those that had criticized my beard.
"I suppose he feels like it!"
Her jaws opened slightly, considering my response.
"You know, I have seen people eat this and drink liquour, HERE!" her eyes got bigger and rounder as she stressed the last word and using both hands she pointed to the whole area the scooter was parked at.
"Here?" I asked surprised.
A firm nod
"They were eating chicken, drinking cold drink, eating chicken drinking cold drink" her head wobbled from side to side as she imitated people tearing meat off chicken limbs and drinking liquour/cold drink.
I grinned widely now, and chuckled unable to contain the laugh any longer.
I looked around to find her mother, a lady stood at the snacks stall, probably her mother. I turned my attention back to this bubbling bundle of high pitched seriousness. She had gone back to conversing on her toy phone. "No wait. I'm talking here. Not to you re!" she cajoled her imaginary friend.
Precisely at this moment, an imperceptible shadow from the netherworld had settled on to a nearby tree. Unbidden, it had sought me out to work out its evil will. Its eyes settled on the little girl that was talking to me and it doubled back to the other world it had slunk in from.
The goddess walked with this one still. He was out of bounds.
And as soon as the shadow had slunk away to whence it had come from, the little girl's mother came back from her purchase, "What are you talking about?" she asked her.
"Oh nothing! I was just having small talk" she replied nonchalantly, and then she turned around and walked away with her mother, not sparing me another glance. Her work here was done,
Knowing nothing of what had come to pass I dug back into my plate of pakoras, surprised and kind of amused with my sudden improvement in likability.
I had started to feel my slutty taste buds revel in the curry soaked assault the pakoras had unleashed, when my friend interrupted the reverie, 'You want cold drinks?'
"You'll get them?" I asked, to lazy to go myself.
''Yep, what do you want?''
''Coke"
''Okay'' he put his plate down on his scooter and walked away to a shop around the corner that sold cold drinks.
The small girl looked at him walk away and then stepped up to me conspiratorially,"Is he going to get cold drinks?" she had stressed 'cold drinks' by stretching it with a cute escalation of her pitch. And this is when things got kind of weird for me, kids don’t step up to me and talk to me. They hover around glancing occasionally, that’s the best I've got till date.
"Yes" I replied.
"You will take cold drinks with this?" she pointed two tiny fingers to the plate my friend had set down, her big round eyes barely above the scooter seat.
I couldn't help smiling.
"Yes" I replied while trying to suppress a chuckle.
"Why?" Three questions she had asked me now. My heavily criticized terroristy-beard face, seemed to be approachable and likable enough to embolden this girl to ask me so many questions! Before answering, I made a mental note to shove this situation in the face of all those that had criticized my beard.
"I suppose he feels like it!"
Her jaws opened slightly, considering my response.
"You know, I have seen people eat this and drink liquour, HERE!" her eyes got bigger and rounder as she stressed the last word and using both hands she pointed to the whole area the scooter was parked at.
"Here?" I asked surprised.
A firm nod
"They were eating chicken, drinking cold drink, eating chicken drinking cold drink" her head wobbled from side to side as she imitated people tearing meat off chicken limbs and drinking liquour/cold drink.
I grinned widely now, and chuckled unable to contain the laugh any longer.
I looked around to find her mother, a lady stood at the snacks stall, probably her mother. I turned my attention back to this bubbling bundle of high pitched seriousness. She had gone back to conversing on her toy phone. "No wait. I'm talking here. Not to you re!" she cajoled her imaginary friend.
Precisely at this moment, an imperceptible shadow from the netherworld had settled on to a nearby tree. Unbidden, it had sought me out to work out its evil will. Its eyes settled on the little girl that was talking to me and it doubled back to the other world it had slunk in from.
The goddess walked with this one still. He was out of bounds.
And as soon as the shadow had slunk away to whence it had come from, the little girl's mother came back from her purchase, "What are you talking about?" she asked her.
"Oh nothing! I was just having small talk" she replied nonchalantly, and then she turned around and walked away with her mother, not sparing me another glance. Her work here was done,
Knowing nothing of what had come to pass I dug back into my plate of pakoras, surprised and kind of amused with my sudden improvement in likability.
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