Sobati

02

The delicate pink petals of the rose buds in the front yard glistened with drops of water from the previous night's heavy shower and the early morning drizzle. The tulsi plant looked more fresh than ever, proudly standing near the few stairs leading to the front porch. 

Grey clouds still dotted the sky, which was slowly turning a light blue. It was time for the city to wake up. The quiet early morning roads of the city were soon replaced with the hustle bustle of the newspaper vendors going about their work, tossing newspaper bundles on the front porches of houses.

A woman, dressed in a kurti and leggings, sipped on her morning tea as she sat on a wooden chair on the front porch of her house. She had the day's newspaper laid out on the small table in front of her chair, her eyes sweeping over the headlines.

About an hour later, a cry from inside the house, sounding something like "Aai!", made her look up from the newspaper. She picked up her tea cup and saucer, and the bundled up newspaper to go inside, leaving the front door open. It was cool weather out and the day had just started. 

Maitreyi couldn't find the container with sugar. The woman simply smiled in amusement as she took in her daughter's expression - half asleep, frustrated and her back hunched from trying to search the sugar container in the bottom drawers. After washing her cup and saucer in the kitchen sink, she reached for the 2nd shelf in the open cupboard to get the sugar container. Maitreyi's posture relaxed, her shoulders straightening themselves, as she took the sugar container and proceeded to make herself a mug of milk. 

"I am going to make parathe today." The woman mumbled, her hands reaching for the dough kept in a tight container, in the refrigerator. She had prepared it the previous night. 

"Okay, I will take them to college." Maitreyi usually just had a mug of milk this early in the morning. She liked to have breakfast around 9am, the standard time her college classes started on most days. On those days, she had breakfast at home and then went to college. But it was a Friday and classes started at 8am. She would have to have breakfast in college. 

"Don't you have only 2 classes today?" Her mother asked as she began moving about in the kitchen to search for the ingredients she needed. 

"Yes. But one is at 8 am, and the other is at 11 am. I will find some psychology textbooks to go through in the college library in the 2 free hours I have." She blew some air on her mug of milk and took small sips as she stood beside her mother in the kitchen. Her mother hummed in agreement. "Do you have to go for any lectures today?" 

Professor Sarika Patki, Ph.D (Organic Chemistry).

That is what her name plate said on the table in her cabin. Patki was previously Deshpande, but after her divorce, she had taken on her maiden surname. 

"No, I will still be in college though.I'll go at around 10 am." 

Maitreyi looked out of the window by the dining table, her eyes taking in the lovely fresh green landscape in her frontyard and her nostrils welcoming the cooling smell of rain on earth. She had stayed up a little later than normal the previous night, nursing her temporary cold because of having been caught in a downpour, watching an old black and white Marathi movie with her mother and then retiring to her bedroom to talk to her father on call. 

She called him every few days. It wasn't the same as having him at home, of course. 

Her mother's voice shook her out of her day dreaming as she told her to get ready for her day. Maitreyi painfully smiled and nodded. It had been almost 7 years but it still hurt on some days. Especially on days which made her take a walk down memory lane; peaceful rainy evenings with her mother and father sitting in their home's balcony, sipping hot tea and her spreading her arms out and dancing with wild abandon. 

******

Ajit Kulkarni wasn't superstitious by nature and principle, but he wished he was, if that was what made his wish come true. 

His childhood friend who went on to become his junior college and engineering friend, had added him to a WhatsApp group a few days ago. After a quick scan over the people in the group, he had came to the conclusion that it had all the people from his 10th standard class. Probably the best class he had ever been in, throughout his education. Everybody was a little immature then, but he had the most good friends from school. Unfortunately, he hadn't met a lot of them since years. Everyone went their separate ways, life happened and the most anyone ever came close to meeting was planning a reunion and then cancelling it. 

He was sure it would be practically impossible to try and schedule a reunion where everyone from Xth A could make it. But he was hoping to at least meet his group of friends. Reshma was going to drop in from Mumbai, Tanuj from Bangalore. The others were luckily in Pune, either settled in Pune or in the city for some work. 

He slurped on his tea as he again checked through the people in that WhatsApp group. His hand hovered over the name of a friend he hadn't quite talked to in almost 3 years. Could they even be called friends now? 

"Sarika Patki...Deshpande? Is this not the Sarika aunty we met once at Lalita aunty's wedding but I don't remember it because I was too young?" 

Ajit was shaken out of his own thoughts as he looked up to see his son tilting his neck to see what was on his screen, chucking slightly as he switched off the screen of his phone,"How do you remember it then?" 

"Photo albums." Neel casually shrugged his shoulders as he leant on the balcony railing. "And you have mentioned it every time I have taken out the photo albums."  

Ajit felt like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing. He finished his tea and then went back inside without giving a reply to his son. 

"Baba! This is indeed that Sarika aunty, right?" Neel followed him into the kitchen. 

"Yes. I might be meeting my friends from school, some weekend in the next few weeks." 

"You miss your school days a lot?" Neel asked thoughtfully as he sat down at the dining table to eat his breakfast. 

Ajit joined him at the dining table, and didn't reply for a few minutes. "I don't usually live in the past, Neel. You know that, beta." This was followed by a sigh. "But I do miss my school days. I was fortunate enough to have a good friend circle, good teachers and a good atmosphere to study in. Those were simpler times. The school business today worries me." 

"I turned out fine, though." Neel laughed and gave his father a mischievous smile. 

Ajit rolled his eyes and smiled as he gave Neel a fatherly pat on his back,"That you did." 

******