Sea Mist

Chapter 5

Khushi sat under the shade of the Peepal tree, resting on her folded knees after a tiring day in the sun. She had brought her students to the local government school for an art project, that involved painting murals on the walls of the school building. These murals were inspired by drawings made by the school children in an art activity that she had conducted along with her students.

Looking for ideas to involve her students in some extra-curricular activity, she had thought of the art project that had been slowly gaining prevalence in many parts of the country in the past few years. Having volunteered in such projects for an ex-colleague in Bangalore had helped her understand the nuances of executing such a project. As a child, she had loved to draw, and over the years she had ventured into painting with water colors, but painting murals was something she had to learn as it was quite different from painting on canvas.

The project whose main objective was about connecting nature with art, depicted murals of landscapes, and included aspects of environmental awareness like cleanliness and water conservation. When she had proposed the project to Arnav he had liked it, and together, they had convinced the principal of Ankita's government school.

She felt a little restless and how much ever she tried, she couldn't shake off thoughts about Arnav. She had been doing fine until he came along one day barging into her life, asking for coffee or yelling at her for taking the short cut after dark. He had clearly instructed her that she was not to leave late from college even to take the longer route. He had also designated Somesh as her personal alarm who ensured, that she left at the right time in case he couldn't be back from the city to pick her up. She remembered him each time the UPS kicked in after a power cut. She also remembered him when she saw his bike which now appeared in her field of vision. She closed her eyes wondering if her imagination could conjure things.

"Sleeping on the job, Ms. Khushi?" Arnav's husky voice brought her out of her reverie.

Khushi looked up, squinting her eyes due to the sunlight. She wasn't imagining it, he really was here. Today he was wearing a light blue cotton shirt folded at the elbow and beige colored pants.

"Hello?" he said, "I am talking to you."

Khushi sat up before he realized what she was day dreaming about. "What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I brought some supplies for your little project here," Arnav said pointing her attention to a plastic bag in his hand. "Somesh called me told me you had asked for these – I bought them in the city. Why didn't you call me?"

"Thank you – I didn't want to disturb you at work," she smiled at him, "These are paints I was waiting for – we had run out of these colors."

As he sat down next to her Khushi thought he looked tired. She uncapped her water bottle and offered it to him. "How was your day at the construction site?" she asked him.

"It was the usual," he told her as he drank water from the bottle finishing it in a few gulps, "we didn't receive the materials we were expecting from Bangalore. Work has stalled a bit. I may have to travel to Bangalore to talk to the vendors."

"Anyway, enough about my boring work." He looked at the students busy working on the artwork. "You students seem to be enjoying their day out of college."

"Thank you for arranging lunch for us," she said. They had all received lunch packets from a nearby restaurant. "And of course, for all the supplies as well."

"You don't have to thank me – it's thanks to Ma's NGO," he quipped, "I should be thanking you for this art project initiative. My aunt started this NGO for helping destitute women and now it can venture into improvement of government schools."