Chaya aunty

It was not that there was not enough help in the house. It was just that Sunita liked cooking for the family. She had just finished cooking lunch and sat with a cup of tea and the morning newspaper. As she skimmed through the newspaper absent-mindedly, her thoughts drifted to the party that she was invited to attend that night. She shifted uncomfortably as she thought about the gathering that Naveen, her husband's colleague and his wife,Preeti had invited them to. Having been brought up in a small town, she preferred small get-together to big parties. The loud music, the dark ambience, the women in loud dresses, men laughing loud just did not make sense to her.

The evening of the party was not much different than what she had imagined. Women in thick make up, high heels and stylishly made up hair styles filled the party hall. As she stood in one corner watching the crowd, she couldn't help but wonder, "Why did they all look a little lost?"

She shrugged the thought aside and went inside the house to help Preeti. She made her way to the dining table, began arranging the dishes, when she heard a loud excited "Hello madam.. !!" at her back.

She turned around to see Chaya aunty, the family's help for five years, smiling broadly as she was waving at her. Sunita couldn’t help but reciprocate back. She could see that Chaya aunty was as happy to see her as she was, to see Chaya aunty. Sunita and Chaya aunty spent the next few minutes chatting with each other as they arranged the dishes on the table. Chaya aunty's company made Sunita feel completely at home at the party. once she came out of the dining hall, she started interacting with a few people and made a few friends.

By the time the party had ended, she was completely at peace. As she waved a goodbye to Naveen and Preeti, she could hear Chaya aunty's soft humming from the kitchen. She couldn't help smiling and acknowledging to herself, that, in the sea of people that both she and Chaya aunty did not understand that day, perhaps they had both found a friend in each other.

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On my way back home

My office timings are between 8 to 5 and I take about 45 minutes to drive down to my work place. Since I have long work hours and commute time, I always try to find ways to reduce my commute time as much as possible. For this purpose, I also take a route that goes from behind my house through villages to the highway that finally connects me to the IT park where my office is.

It had been just another regular day for me that day. I had left office at 5 pm and I was driving fast on the highway. I had driven for about 30 minutes when I spotted the village that I was about to enter. That day, something caught my eye. The rays of the setting sun reflected off the bright green colour painted house that marked the start of the village. It looked beautiful. I looked a little more closely. An old woman wearing a faded yellow saree was squatting on the verandah cutting spinach leaves. Perhaps she was getting them ready for the dinner. An old man wearing a faded white kurta and dhoti was squatting besides her, cleaning up the leaves. Life seemed slow and relaxed for the two of them as they cleaned and cut the leaves chatting and smiling to each other.

As I drove further, I looked around a little more. On my left, I saw a neatly painted sky blue coloured house with a red colour thatched roof that was fenced by blocks of long flat monolithic stones placed vertically. I could see through the space between the stones. The area in front of the house was actually a cowshed and well-fed brown and white spotted cows rested there. All the houses in the village had a thatched roof to them.

I saw to my right. Children about the age of 4 or 5 were jumping around a bike parked in front of the small clean house. The children wore locally available cotton dresses. Their dresses though old  looked clean and their hair was oiled and combed. One girl in that group though was a little curiously dressed. She wore a old synthetic well cut white frock with black polka dots on it. A velvety bright red ribbon ran through the middle of the dress. The dress in its better days must have been a good party wear and I wondered how it had landed up in this small village. Was it a hand over to this little girl from one of her city cousins? I would never know.

A relatively bigger house made of grey coloured stone bricks stood on my left a little further down. A small shop that served as a provision store cum tea-shop came next. A lady seemed to run the store. A few people from the village stood there chatting with each other. On the right side was a temple.

As I drove further down enjoying the village sights, I heard a small honk. I looked up to see a car coming from the other side. The road that I was travelling was narrow and if two cars needed to pass each other on this road, it needed a little bit of adjusting to do. The sight of the car also meant that I had reached the end of the village and I would soon reach the busy main road that led me to my home.

The car and me, squeezed through the small lane. As I pressed my accelerator to hurry back home, I couldn't help thinking how beautifully life had slowed down the past ten minutes.

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