Nandini covered her face with the scarf that she was wearing around
her head. Even though she was standing in a shaded area, the drops of
sweat refused to stop coming. She looked at her watch, then at her
phone.
‘I am reaching in 10 minutes’ – that was the message Nandini’s friend
Omya had sent her an hour ago and the rest of the messages that
followed included a trail of excuses as to why she was getting late,
and they ended at a point where there was no possible excuse that
could be formed on the subject; that was 20 minutes ago. Nandini was
used to this once, but now it felt frustratingly different.
Nandini had to work late in the office a day before, she was back home
by 10:30 at night with more work to be done. Here she was standing and
waiting in presence of summer heat, a mountain of work, professional
and household awaited her at home.
Nandini was meeting Omya after 2 years. That is the reason why Nandini
did not think of cancelling this pre-decided lunch. Although both of
them lived in the same city, Nandini’s professional life had consumed
most of her time in life. Nandini did not mind though, she had worked
hard on making it this far, and it had brought a lot of positive
changes in her life.
Nandini and Omya met in college, they would travel half the route to
the college together. Nandini would wait for Omya at the bus stop, and
when she came both got on the bus. The only problem was that Omya was
always late for a reason or two, she was mostly on time only on days
when something was troubling her.
Initially it had seemed fine as all reasons do when they are presented
the first time no matter how much the action repeats itself; because
you want to believe there is an actual problem. The frustration starts
to set in when the reasons start becoming common with slight
variations made worse by constant failure of rectifying the error.
What Omya never got to know was that her easy-going life had made
Nandini develop a distinct dislike for not being on time, especially
when there was someone out there waiting. Coming before time and
waiting was still acceptable but this discomfort that followed while
waiting for someone who was late was too much for Nandini.
“Why don’t you reach there directly?” Nandini had said this a day
before on the phone.
“This job life has made life terrible, you wait for me at the bus
stop, like you used to, from there we will catch a bus together, it
will be fun like old times,” Omya had said.
‘I cannot believe her habit of getting late has still remained after
all this time. Even a professional lifer could not teach her that. If
anything she has become less creative at making reasons for being late
now’ Nandini thought as she wiped sweat off her face with a
handkerchief.
‘That’s it, I am going home,’ Nandini made up her mind and turned to
leave when she found Omya walking hurriedly towards her.
“You know right you have ruined the day; I feel like I have lost all
my energy standing here in this hot climate,” Nandini said with a
frustrated expression after having recollected in her mind all the
times that she had to wait like this.
“I know, I am sorry you had to wait. I told you in the messages, you
understand right? Come let’s catch the bus. We will have a good time
from here on” Omya said with a guilty smile.
The bus was crowded, there were no seats.
“Since when did the bus started getting so crowded on a Sunday?” said Omya
“People go out on a Sunday around lunch time. Had you been on time,
this wouldn’t have been a problem,” said Nandini
“I said I am sorry. What happened to you? You never had a problem before”
“Before? It has been 6 years Omya, how long do you want to continue
with this excuse-filled life?”
“I am working on it.”
Nandini gave a sarcastic life, “Well, no need to hurry, it always
seemed you had more time than the rest of us the way with your
easy-going attitude in life. I hope you did not forget to make the
booking.”
“Relax, don’t get so fired up, I have made the booking. Let’s just
have a good time today, please!”
Nandini decided to ignore her frustrations for a while and both the
friends spent the rest of the way talking about the present and
reminiscing about the past.
The manager of the restaurant stood looking at Nandini and Gomya with
an expression which showed disappointment and a slight apology at the
same time and then he spoke, “We only hold the table for 15 minutes
after the booking time.”
He then looked at the clock placed outside the restaurant, “It is 35
minutes past your booking time.”
Nandini looked at Omya with a look which questioned ‘what is to be
done now that you have put us in this scenario’.
Omya looked at the manager, “Are all the table’s full?”
“I am afraid so, you can wait, but it will be a while before you find
an empty table, I do not see any table emptying any time soon.”
A grey round table was covered by the canopy of a green umbrella. It
was near an open food stall. Nandini and Omya sat eating vegetable
rolls and drinking cold coffee.
“Good time, right? we started from out and we are still sitting out,”
Nandini spoke. Omya gave no reply and stayed silent.
“Let’s go home after eating. I hope I can still salvage something out
of this Sunday so that I don’t have to go back to work with a tired
mind tomorrow,” said Nandini.
“I am sorry once again, how could I know things would turn out this
way,” said Omya without looking at Nandini.
“We’re not some fresh out of school college going students anymore
Omya. We both have professional lives, and then there are family
responsibilities as well. If you want to be so easy-going about it
then do so, but don’t waste other people’s time.”
There was a silence which was not finding any end. Nandini quietly got
up and walked out of there towards her home. Omya didn’t follow
Nandini at first, then a sudden realisation hit her that if she just
let her go without talking, she may lose a good friend forever, she
got up and rushed behind her, for her friendship and now with a
realisation.
Waiting Without an End
Early Morning Memories 
2 responses to “Waiting Without an End”
In what you write it glimmers through that you are a very patient person. They say Patience is a virtue.
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Thanks ma’am
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