A Woman I met ... !

She looked so simple, nothing out of the ordinary. I would not have picked her out from the crowd had she not come to me on her own. It was a sunny morning, and that too a Sunday. And as part of my Sunday ritual, I was overloaded with so many things in both my hands. I could swear I had my hands stuck but they were not more than my sedan’s boot-space could handle. But just as I thought I had them stuffed inside the trunk, they started tumbling out one after the other and I stood there watching with the despair I had accumulated in my life till date.

She must have pitied me because she came running.  She helped me put all those spilled beans from the now-tattered bags. Few chips packets were torn. My breaths were almost rising when she came towards me. I was overwhelmed and I couldn’t just not ask her for a cup of coffee. She came from an affluent house, I could say by looking at her demeanor, and her clothes more-or-less.  We introduced ourselves and without giving me any chance Meira herself asked me for coffee. I was embarrassed. It should have been me but I couldn’t deny. We went to a café nearby. While we chatted, her 3 year old son Krishna kept prodding her “Mumma, Ice-Cream!” Meira was being a good mother and didn’t fall for any bit. But he would go on rolling her dupatta into little circles and back to his chant. He would fall down from climbing chairs which lay empty but nothing could modulate the toddler’s bawl and he would continue sulking. And sitting there, I would just roll my eyes inside and think of my mother and laugh silently in my head, ”Yea Mom, I am ready for this! Ha-ha.” This was a chance in disguise for me to ‘Thank Her’ and after much insisting, she let me buy his son a slice of chocolate-fudge with syrup drooling all over it and a big scoop of ice-cream on side, guess she read the dilemma on my face. We kept talking. We talked on varied range of topics including politics, geography and a bit of history. I was developing a sense of liking for her. We talked about her family and with every mention of Jai, her husband her cheek would go crimson with blush and all I would want would be to revel in her joy. Everytime, she would try to purse her lip and obscure the smile but there was no hiding them anymore. That smile along with the half-tear in her eyes would reinforce my belief in the philosophy of love and the institution of marriage, and that too an arranged-marriage. We talked about our high-school crush and giggled.  Sharing with her was easy, mostly because she was willing to share as well. She would go on talking about her in-laws and her parents for minutes without realizing she had company and I would dare not stop her. And, when she would realize she was far gone, she would snap out of it and apologize repeatedly.

  

“Sweetie, finish it fast. Papa’s waiting! C’mon.”, she sounded a bit flustered. May be because it was getting dark and she didn’t have a car of her own. I asked if she needed lift but she denied with a subtle movement of her lips. Just then, her cellphone rang. “Jay calling”, it flashed and I started smiling obtusely. She looked at her phone and then me. I thought I saw fear but that didn’t make any sense and I ignored it. My brain does throw spins at me at times.  But something told me not everything was right and it had raked up my curiosity. She had suddenly stood up, and started pacing back and forth but the smile, she maintained no matter what. Just that this smile had no warmth as before. Before she would want to explain things, I eased her off,” He is falling. Let me go hold him”, pointing towards his son who by now had taken up the new task of greeting everybody else in the café. 

By now she had picked up the call. “No no … I was in the bathroom. That’s why I couldn’t pick it up any sooner”. She was trying to convince him but her voice was breaking. There was yelling at the other side, her phone gave that away. And, all the hunky-dory on this side just proved it over and over again.

I heard sobs behind me. I turned around to confirm it was her. Stumped, every word that she had said to me came flashing infront of me and I started sifting for the morsel of truth in them, if there ever was. How much effort she had put in to fake everything? Was she hoping that to be her life at some point of life or did she dream of it yesterday? Has it always been the same? I wanted answers to so many question but her puckered lips and constricted eyebrows formed into a canopy had answered them all. I didn’t know how to feel, was I supposed to feel duped or feel pity for her? And, a tear emerged from my eye but I didn’t let it trail on. She held my palm into hers and cringed as if begging me to understand. I nodded along. Did she come running to help so as to have company, did she have none? Or did she invite me herself to assure I continued talking to her, I wanted to ask but my words remained crammed inside my mouth and all I could susurrate was, “Can we meet again?”

“I’ll pray to God”, and she clutched Krishna’s hand and hurried-off and my gaze was left to follow her till she disappeared out of my sight.