There was light music playing and the air carried the cold from the air conditioners. There were children looking around at what they could associate with their worlds and there were parents trying hard for a moment to forget their everyday lives and find that moment of relaxation.
The shops with their see through glasses stood to grab the attention of a mind or two. Everything had been arranged in a way that would make people want to return again and again.
Girija didn’t prefer malls, she was more of a park person or anywhere with nature. Her glass of milkshake remained untouched as she focussed on this lingering feeling for something going the wrong way.
Girija looked at Manan who was still speaking something to her, it had become inaudible at this point to Girija’s mind. She was quite surprised he hadn’t noticed it yet, but then again, he hadn’t noticed a lot of other things about her and had mostly prioritised on being noticed himself with his preferences, likes and dislikes.
Some things are better when they stay at a place as they are. Girija and Manan worked at the same office and took the same bus up to a point back home from work. There were conversations and one day Manan proposed things to mean more than just a bus travel with conversations and Girija agreed as she had become fond of the conversations.
But she hadn’t realised that the conversations with no further attachments was what she had liked and as things became more personal, the tone of things changed as well.
Manan had begun to notice by now that Girija wasn’t listening to him. A month later, Girija discovered the new liking she had found for travelling by herself back home. It gave her time to think about several aspects of her life.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 
One response to “The Unwanted Change”
This is a beautifully observant and quietly powerful piece. It draws you in gently, almost like the very setting it describes—calm on the surface, yet layered with subtle emotional undercurrents.
The opening is especially vivid. You’ve captured the atmosphere of the mall so well—the soft music, the artificial chill, the curated perfection of spaces designed to invite and entice. But beneath that carefully arranged world, there’s a contrast brewing, and Girija becomes the lens through which we feel it.
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