I was off for my customary evening walk when Lekha asked me to pick up a kilogram of tomatoes on my return. I realised that the walk was being punctuated with a lot of activities, before and after!
At the start was an urgent meeting of the residential association's core committee that had to decide on emergency payments to two of our workers - the first was the requirement of Joginder, our gardener from Bihar, on account of his infant daughter's death back home and the second was that of Majid, our garbage collector from the border district of Tamilnadu, on account of electrical connection being provided to his newly built house. Both are sincere workers and their needs genuine and hence, approving the payments was unanimously agreed upon. A couple of other points were also discussed and necessary directives given before I eventually set out for my walk, half an hour later than usual.
It had started to drizzle which soon developed into a downpour but the lazy guy that I was, refused to go back home to collect my raincape and in the process, got drenched to the skin of my teeth! But I must confess that I enjoyed getting wet and ploughing through the downpour. In the process, a few uncouth drivers drove past me through the roadside puddles splashing the mucky water on to my sports togs. But none of these, otherwise major irritants, could 'dampen' my spirits!
After the walk, I'd got into Sunny's - the grocer in our residential area - shop to get the tomatoes. The few people, who're in various process of collecting their purchases, gave way for your's truly probably feeling pity on my 'thoroughly-battered-by-nature' looks and not repeat not because of my exalted(?!) status, mind you! I picked and chose the vegetable - purely going by the brightness of the colour though I was painfully aware of artificial colours being used by unscrupulous vendors - and had collected a large mound within no time.
Sunny, smilingly and without removing, even once, his eyes from mine kept demolishing the mound by putting back the excess vegetable back into the display sack saying, "madam hota toh sahi number pick up karti"(meaning that Lekha'd would have picked up the right amount, implying perhaps that I was a 'dumbo' - or did he mean that? - Will he dare do that? Now, that's my alter ego and I've no control over it!).
More ignominy was in store once I reached my home. Lekha found fault with almost all the tomatoes that I'd picked up!
And no, my spirits continued to be high!!
At the start was an urgent meeting of the residential association's core committee that had to decide on emergency payments to two of our workers - the first was the requirement of Joginder, our gardener from Bihar, on account of his infant daughter's death back home and the second was that of Majid, our garbage collector from the border district of Tamilnadu, on account of electrical connection being provided to his newly built house. Both are sincere workers and their needs genuine and hence, approving the payments was unanimously agreed upon. A couple of other points were also discussed and necessary directives given before I eventually set out for my walk, half an hour later than usual.
It had started to drizzle which soon developed into a downpour but the lazy guy that I was, refused to go back home to collect my raincape and in the process, got drenched to the skin of my teeth! But I must confess that I enjoyed getting wet and ploughing through the downpour. In the process, a few uncouth drivers drove past me through the roadside puddles splashing the mucky water on to my sports togs. But none of these, otherwise major irritants, could 'dampen' my spirits!
After the walk, I'd got into Sunny's - the grocer in our residential area - shop to get the tomatoes. The few people, who're in various process of collecting their purchases, gave way for your's truly probably feeling pity on my 'thoroughly-battered-by-nature' looks and not repeat not because of my exalted(?!) status, mind you! I picked and chose the vegetable - purely going by the brightness of the colour though I was painfully aware of artificial colours being used by unscrupulous vendors - and had collected a large mound within no time.
Sunny, smilingly and without removing, even once, his eyes from mine kept demolishing the mound by putting back the excess vegetable back into the display sack saying, "madam hota toh sahi number pick up karti"(meaning that Lekha'd would have picked up the right amount, implying perhaps that I was a 'dumbo' - or did he mean that? - Will he dare do that? Now, that's my alter ego and I've no control over it!).
More ignominy was in store once I reached my home. Lekha found fault with almost all the tomatoes that I'd picked up!
And no, my spirits continued to be high!!
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