I go home next Wednesday. After the longest gap of 14 months and what's more, V is coming with me. I don't remember the last time we stayed at home together. V is still sceptical about moving around so I don't know what all we'll do but I'm so looking forward to the days. I'll miss some things, though. Hope not entirely.
I'm going to miss travelling by buses to Mangalore, surely. Hopefully next time.
My cousin G got married and I couldn't attend, neither did V. A few days later my cousin S called to complain about it, saying he went there only to meet V and I and was disappointed by our absence.
S is my father's cousin's last son. Eight years younger than me and had earned quite a reputation in his childhood. He was a kleptomaniac and kept both his parents and hosts wary whenever he visited someone. My grandmother blamed loss of any of her cutlery on him, with total disregard to the timelines. His father was very short-tempered and his mother had made him live with various relatives, both to try and get him out of the habit and to save him from his father's wrath.
So it was in 1995 that he came to live with us for a school year. His mother, my father's cousin, was hopeful that he would be able to make a difference. The idea didn't appeal to me at all. I was in 12th and to be mindful of this nuisance in my room was going to be troublesome. Besides, he was a brash child unlike his second brother, with who I had a great rapport. But my mother had decided we were going to help my aunt and so S came home that summer with us, with a small bag of shirts and shorts.
For some reason Pappa didn't enroll S in V's school, which was at a walking distance. Instead, he went to a school a few kms away, whose headmaster was our friend. I think this Maama used to drive him on his bike daily and I guess he'd been requested to keep an eye on S. I don't recollect that he was much of a trouble in school.
At home I think he had some trouble, though I hardly remember much of it. I think Pappa hit him once too but he didn't cry. The neighborhood boys liked him well enough. He loved to talk. I remember getting very annoyed with him once because he teased me with Usha Auntie's son. I guess the fact that a boy that small could talk like that annoyed me more, my friends never did that.
I don't know if my parents had any plans to extend his stay but S put them to rest by stealing my coin collection when he went home during holidays. I remember crying like crazy over it. My aunt of course was sad and she made sure that the coins were restored. S didn't return and I think we were all relieved and I went on to college and hostel and forgot about S for the next few years. The neighborhood boys missed him.
S since then has gone on to do better. We reconnected much later and are on very good terms. He works as a clerk in a bank in hometown and takes care of his parents. I don't know what memories he holds from that year in our house.
I attended Maha's wedding today, after much dilly-dallying. She was one of my favorites when she was a colleague and I wasn't sure if I would meet her ever again otherwise. So I went with some trepidation, to be with a crowd after so long. Of course I have reasons to worry now; nobody wore a mask there and I had to reluctantly remove mine after a while with no distancing to speak of. But I'm glad I went. I like her even more now for the kind of simple wedding she had.
I never knew it could be true. I'm annoyed thoroughly and when I am, I let the annoying person know. And the annoying person, in his characteristic style, dismisses it and annoys me even more. Exasperatingly cool. Like my father. So here I am, already at the crossroads I had foreseen. Gosh, March seems so far away!
It's strange that I've never met D, despite the opportunities. Many around me have. But who knows, maybe we did cross paths in Mumbai during those five months in 2001, in Lokhandwala complex or SEEPZ...
I don't like the way we are going about with the new products. Here's a golden chance to set some things right and we're not grabbing it, just being frustratingly short-sighted.
I've never been this distracted before. That it should be because of one who would've hated it otherwise is ironic and embarrassing. I should pull myself up.
L wrote me a postal letter that reached me today. It was her sudden idea that we start corresponding this way, just for old times' sake. I read it and it's sweet but for some reason I thought it would contain some kind of confession. I don't know what kind. Was it because it would've made it easier for me? It's my turn to write now.
