Mr Dhawan moved against the air with speed. The morning in its early stage is calmer and there seems to be more space in the otherwise busy world. Mr Dhawan moved fast, past the usual landmarks, over the familiar roads, eyes in front, and all the effort in the world to keep the mind positive.
Mr Dhawan stopped the bicycle in front of his house and frowned a little to find the newspaper on the ramp.
‘Must be a new delivery man,’ thought Mr Dhawan while calming himself to not lose focus on positivity, but the worst was yet to come.
It was out there under the open sky, moving steadily. In Mr Dhawan’s imagination a veil of darker tone spread as the presence stepped closer.
Mr Dhawan had thought of a few things to say or rather ask but the words never appeared and Mr Hans walked past Mr Dhawan’s house. Mr Dhawan may have noticed the passing of a faint smile.
Almost a month ago. As Mr Dhawan reversed his car slowly from the parking of his house. Mr Hans riding the scooter with his wife rushed in without notice and disbalanced and fell due to the fear of crashing into the car. Mr and Mrs Dhawan rushed to help them up. Mrs Hans was furious and saw no fault on her husband’s side, Mrs Dhawan tried to remain calm while trying to explain, but reached her limit and a heated argument took place. Mr Dhawan and Mr Hans look at each other expecting the other to do something to stop this.
No one stopped the argument, it died down, after running its course. A few curious and a few actually concerned neighbours enquired from Mrs Dhawan later about the incident. One of the neighbours Mrs Shenoy said something that bothered Mrs Dhawan, it was that Mrs Hans practised some form of ritual to use otherworldly power to harm those she didn’t like, Mrs Shenoy gave examples of some occurrences in the neighbourhood such as the vegetable vendor who refused to give repeated discounts to Mrs Hans and later found himself in debt due to bad investment.
“There is no such thing” explained Mr Dhawan later, “only the weak minded have belief in such things”
Mrs Dhawan nodded, but remained bothered a little and things generally have a way of associating with a thought and Mr Dhawan’s viral fever was associated with it and also with the microwave malfunctioning for the second time in a week and Mrs Dhawan’s favourite flowering plant dying.
Mr Dhawan started becoming concerned, not from the things happening but rather by his wife’s belief into something that felt so far away from reality. But he knew it was only a matter of time before the thought lost its power, because life will continue to happen no matter what you think about its ways.
As Mr Hans walked away, Mr Dhawan realised on his own behalf, that even though it was for a moment, it was an absurd thought to confront Mr Hans with nothing good to be possibly achieved.
Realisations take their time and Mrs Dhawan in time mostly forgets about the thought. But sometimes she still warns people of Mrs Hans and her otherworldly connections.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 