1] Enjoying the unreal secrecy of being in a recluse spot Cheta and I embarked on one of the courageous stunts of our childhood. On the garage floor, where my maternal uncle’s white ambassador car was parked, we found a half smoked beedi thrown away by our house help Kuttappan. It wasn’t put off yet. Cheta very daringly picked it up and took a couple of puffs. I was indeed a tattler but for once I couldn’t fight the urge to try it myself. So I did! My first encounter with - a beedi at the age of 10 if I am not wrong. Over the years my brother graduated to a cigarette and still adds to the tobacco sector’s profits.
2] I remember staying up the whole night with my friends; I think their names were Preeti and Pinky, who had come home to spend the night. We ate a whole lot of peanut butter and bread and we stayed up just to watch the sunrise. That was the only time I witnessed a sunrise in Saudi Arabia. In a strange way, being in a country stifled by restrictions, at that moment basking in the beauty of the golden sun I felt free, really free. I was too young to understand that feeling then, but today I appreciate it.
3] While exiting from the atrium of the mall Crossroads in Mumbai 6 years back, he held my hand for the very first time. A smile crossed my face and if I close my eyes I get transported to that exact moment when my heart was brimming with a joy so innocent that it makes me smile even today.
4] My despair as a child, my despair to be the most special person in at least someone’s life. Curled up in that secret corner in our one bedroom apartment in Jankalyan, tears were running down my cheeks. Attempting to figure out in whose heart did I hold a special place? And..The quest continues or did it just end?
