When I woke up a tad bit too early…
I woke up listening to my Grand
father’s slippers tapping against the floor. He started wearing to ward off
pain in the joints which he thought is due to the cold floor. I could hear ‘Rangoli’
blaring on the TV which meant it is a Sunday. I woke up from the bed and saw
the Mosaic flooring of my house and felt something was different. My mother
asked me to brush and come for the tea. Near the wash basin, was kept the
toothbrush and Cibaca toothpaste. I went downstairs and took up the day’s Newspaper.
There wasn’t anything which interested me.
We all had breakfast together and
dad told that we will go for a movie in the afternoon. After breakfast, we all
sat together and watched ‘Sri Krishna’. When the last advertisement post the
program was running on the TV, the power went off. We knew it won’t be back for
at least an hour. My sister and I took our cycles and went over to our friends’
places. My friend Ravi’s father had bought a Maruti 800. What a car! It did not
even make a noise when it moved. The interiors looked very modern and plush. Both
of us reached home for lunch. After lunch, we went to the theatre in a bus.
There was a long queue outside the theatre but thankfully, the ladies’ queue
was smaller. We got the tickets and went
inside the theatre. We got some chips and a Campa cola. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le
Jayenge was becoming a huge hit with relatively new stars, Shahrukh Khan and
Kajol. After the movie, we went for a walk on the marine drive. It was a pleasant
evening. The road was full of new Maruti cars. The Premier Padminis and the Ambassadors
stood the ground even though they were fighting a losing battle as my father
often said.
We were home by 6 o clock just in
time to catch ‘The Jungle book’. It has always been a mixed feeling to watch
this show for it meant that Sunday is coming to an end. Grandfather sat down to
watch the 7pm news and we went to check if there is any pending home work. Thankfully,
there were none. Turning my Crompton greaves fan to full speed, I went to bed
by 9 after dinner.
I woke up with a start. I checked
if my cell phone was near my pillow. I swiftly checked if it was connected to
net and if I had any notifications on Facebook and whatsapp. The air conditioner
was working and the flooring was familiar grey marble. I ran down and asked my
mother where the newspaper was. It was the 10th day of November of
2014.I let out a sigh of relief. Father called out to me to book movie tickets
for an afternoon show and to connect the laptop so that he could skype with my
sister. Before I could think about what had just happened, my whatsapp pinged continually
for my attention.
Hi Arun,
ReplyDeleteI think of following reasons for the whole episode.
1. You might have been under a strong hang over . :-)
2. You might have been in a time machine.
3. You might have been nursing some unfulfilled fantasies about a Bombay childhood.
Anyway a smooth flowing writing. At some stage, I thought of an advt by Congress Party during the run up to Lok Sabha elections showing a person wondering about the missing fly over, ATM etc..Forget it .. that was politics. This is human mind. Keep it up as you are fast approaching bi-century!!!
Best wishes,
NANDAKUMAR
he he...the closest reason would be 3- about having a Bombay childhood :)..and thank you for the wishes,uncle :) ...
DeleteVery nice. When you wrote about Padmini and maruti 800,it was really nostalgic. Howthings have changed now.But we are still living our life to its full.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anusia. Glad that you liked it :)
Delete