As the wind blew and a few people were on their way, I stared down at the face of a person for the fourth time now in this particular situation and even though it was quite difficult to do so yet I smiled before speaking.
“You cannot keep doing this,” I said to Mr Talwar, a man burdened with the inability to refuse his wife. Conscious of the guilt it made him feel yet time and again he walked down the same path, never with confidence but always with the fear of getting caught at odds.
“It’s not every day, I mean sometimes you can let it go…” said Mr Talwar with a smile of guilt
“You think I don’t notice things around? There are other people who have seen you as well. It’s almost every day,” I said
He didn’t respond or was figuring out what to say next. He was out of the usual words. I thought of giving it more time with a few more words.
“You need to understand, it’s hard work. Sometimes you will find me out early in the morning working on it. How would it feel the result of all that hard work is taken away? Besides, we don’t need to make everything our own, somethings should be left as they are,” I said hoping he would carry those words forward to the person who was asking him to do this
“I understand, you are right,” said Mr Talwar as he extended his right hand towards me, in his hand was a polythene bag with more than half the flowers of my small garden.
“You can keep them, just don’t do it again,” I said and Mr Talwar nodded and walked away but I knew he would be back after a month or two, after being caught at several other houses doing the same, thinking of a new way to not get caught this time. Maybe I will think of something different to say this time and will be more prepared.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 