A bright afternoon with sun pulling sweat from the skin of players, event organizers who were familiar, working towards preparing ground for a big cricket match. The known familiar personalities stand out in ground as in-charge was guiding  people who were helping to arrange a boundary. 

I picked a big stone to mark the boundary as per instructions of the senior artist and went all the way down to complete the circle which required only two stones.

While I was holding the stone, I looked around and sensed urgency with intent among the workers to make a big stage for a big sport. The ground had all the making of an enthusiastic, emotionally charging and thrilling game of cricket waiting to be played.

   On my way back to check the position of the stone I went to her (senior artist), my knee pinned her knee in a soccer game tackling kind which neither of us realized coming. She felt the pain but resisted to show on her face shrugged off instantly in the usual workaholic manner. The players in the game do not show their pain when they are hurt. It’s all part of the game as they put it.

II

It was orange and spilled crimson red on the faces of people who gathered with snacks and drinks in their fist with florescent lights flashing the vibrant ambiance  The boys and girls are thrown with bright orange and subtle dark green on their clothes making sure it is a palette of color harmony.

Everything seemed to be so beautiful until a bizarre experience was waiting at the corner.

A friend of mine wore a tight half sleeveless banyan like garment around the chest and Ghagra like flowing skirt which was dark flashy green with pink slippers and a pair of big hanging jhumki.  The top that my friend wore was white but with the light it looked bright juicy orange, looked gaudy, elegant and calm in that outfit. There were a bunch of boys and girls in small clusters which seemed to be well designed with the evening.   

I looked at my friend in awe, couldn't believe what I am put to see against the usual ways. My awe and bizarre reactions did not make any impact on the facial expression of my friend. I was watching my friend from a distance,

as I got closer I asked “why the hell are you wearing this outfit”? I was startled to see his polished bald head shining with bright orange. He was silent.

Well, it is time; I had to rush back my home soon. I had something very important waiting to be addressed back home.  I said goodbyes to all my friends of whom I recognized only two; one with the Ghagra and Jhumki and the other with his usual Ambarish type, the guy whom I know from a long time now. I know him more than himself.

I was on my way home not before I left my phone with some balance in it in the hands of the second friend which I realized only when…………………….

III

It was dark but not too blacks a night to see sparkling stars. The light was frightening   pthalo blue with dim and cold balcony. Not exactly a balcony or a kind of portico,

a place where people build railings but never used because it is just an accessory to a so far well built class room of a college.

I was tense and my heart beat was nearly a heavy metal concert. I was wearing dark blue shiny leather jacket with dark blue shiny leather pant. The road was too deep to jump from the railings in order to escape. The moon light was dim and could hear the voice of a male who seems to be well read, strong, not adolescent but young, wearing blue shirt and a big eye globs. I could not make out his voice clearly but saw his eyes were strong and determined. He was teaching. His teaching was dominant, confident assuring, particular, crisp and straight.

I became more conscious of the fact that I am disturbing the focus of the students who seemed to guess there’s some movement behind the fresh fixed,

cream colored dim frost fused glass window. The teacher was getting more aware of the shifting focus of his students.

He slowly came closer toward the moving object outside the window much to his curiosity but not so sure the image is a man; that’s me.

I started feeling my nerve and so tensed. All I wanted is not to disturb the class or the teacher and escape somehow out of this situation. Now I became so sure that he will find me. I could almost sense his energy near the window next to me. I decided that it is time that I have to find out a way to escape.

On the railing there flashed a dim rhythmic light which was translucent soft blue which emerged from a dirty, used half white mobile phone with hard keypads and flat to fit on plane railing surface. After the rhythmic light it started ringing in Nokia tune much to add to my tensions. I suddenly cut the call in a hurry.

My hand started to shiver, by now the teacher is so close and convinced the moving object is an unknown guy who he thought would disturb his class. His stance was rude, strong and defensive as if he is going to throw me out of anger.

  Only now I got to

realize that my mobile phone got exchanged with my second friend. Out of helplessness I wanted my phone back not because I possess but this phone had no balance in it. Clueless, helpless I became, cursed my friend he shall never bring a sense of change in his life after all these years.

I had very less option to get out of that building. Slowly everyone in the class along with the teacher learned that it was me and suspicious. I became more conscious of my embarrassment after all I had a classroom which runs constantly on my left plane and a concrete railing parallel to the left on my right plane. Here I finally decided to show myself as I had no choice left to grab.

I saw a silver lining like in a dark storm cloud behind my back. I walked back not turning my head off the teacher or classroom, slowly toward the opening behind me.

The wall was broken with big chunks hanging out of freshly laid concrete. Slowly I climbed the stairs through the hole and I found myself in the left corner of the classroom. Now I was so sure that I will manage to find an escape and run away.

I looked straight into the bloodshed red furious eyes of the teacher who was staring at me after I looked at a way to escape, a way to find a solution to break the ice. The new way revealed itself above the classroom in vivid high saturated colors  I looked back at the teacher; his eyes turned white and gently instructed me to choose the new way as if he read my eyes.

IV

I was happy and ecstatic to have discovered a new way but afraid at the same time; I entered a new territory which was quite dramatic. The light was bright and sharp but not bright enough to fill the whole portion. The portion had many half built pillars which were painted red oxide below their waist and continued on the floor.

The room was fluorescent glassy green with chrome light lit against them. The light source was above the reach of my sight. The floor was old and looked like a poor man’s paradise with aluminium cooking containers and ashes flying with the smell of coal and kerosene to create a sense of suffocation in my nostrils for a while. The light on the red oxide floor reflected bright and circular.    

I heard a feeble conversation of a mother and child even they shouted. I was scared not to repeat the same classroom incident.

I may have felt cold, had a red and blue jacket with a track pant of same color added with a red cap on my head.

I walked slowly hiding from pillar to pillar manifested into a cat to get to a safe comfortable zone. The boy seemed to have noticed some movement around the pillars, alert and curious; I observed when I leaned and bent myself to check and to snatch a glimpse of their stance. The light was bright but cast a dull spell of shadows of the pillars on the floor. The boy recognized the little movement and changes in the dim shadows.

I was caught.

The mother started screaming and yelling while her kid doesn't know what to do. The building was ransacked and half constructed and left alone to be built by the people who dare to live there. I was so sure I won’t be put to any harm by her scream. I went close to her in a sense of calm to convince her that I am of no trouble and harm to her or to her family. I started to act differently. “I am an orphan” I said, for a while I couldn't digest and understand that such thing came out instantly out of ideas to escape. It was an improvised timely excuse. My eyes lit up as I went on. The wit and excitement of fooling continued till she let a few drops of tears to wipe them off with a big huge hug to me along with her kid.

 The kid and I were in her stretched, tightened arms waiting to be released by the sudden appearance of the mother’s daughter; a little girl with her hair left untied and a girl of minimal words.

 The mother insisted the girl to serve food for me and for the kid as if a routine schedule of her and left the portion to a room behind one of the pillars.

The girl disappeared suddenly after nodding her head while I turned around to see her dad who just entered after a long hectic work. I stood there for a while with the kid till the girl brought rice and started to serve. It was brown a mixture of gravy and rice with a tamarind smell and hot. She gave a plate to me and to her brother who was eagerly waiting.

The girl found a gold coin in the brown rice mixture in aluminium container which was big at its base. The girl and the boy along with their dad were thrilled.  The girl and her dad suddenly went inside the mother’s room leaving me and the kid alone. The girl’s dad tried to wake the mother up as if she is in the middle of a deep sleep. She was on her bed lying comfortably.  The dad gave up the attempts to wake her up.

 The agony in the family started to take firm control on the house. The gold sparkled in the middle of brown rice mixture.