Thursday, 28 March 2024
Half a dosai & cuppa plain tea

Half a dosai & cuppa plain tea Featured

“What time….now?” she asked the little boy who holds onto her walking stick and leads her through the day.

“Don’t know” the little fellow said.

“Is it dark now?..... Are people going away?” The voice was clear and loud enough for the little fellow. He was aimless and exhausted. More because he had nothing to do, sticking around with the old woman. He had helped her through crowded pavements from morning. He had to take her to places where people gather; big bus stands, big shopping malls, big food parks and this evening to the big public rally at the Hyde Park.

“No….” He looked around. “Lots of people are there…..” he said and wondered where the sun was. Sun was nowhere to be seen. The sky wasn’t much cloudy though. He was looking towards the multi storey Mahaweli Authority building. ‘May be behind that very tall building’ he thought. “Not dark…..can see people on stage” he muttered.

“Hmm….tell me when it’s little dark” she said while carefully counting coins people had thrown on the tattered mat she was seated on. She ran her fingers among the coins and made them into a small pile. Her fingers knew the contours of each coin she picked up and its value ran through her to tell her if it’s ten, five, two, one or ‘half rupee’ she calls the fifty cents. Here and there she comes across few notes too that she knew how much, but at times wanted the little fellow to confirm if she is right.

“This….torn a little. Twenty you say?” she would say after the little fellow read the numerical on the note for her. “What are they saying? Is it clear for you? These loudspeakers are too loud.”

“Don’t know…..something about tomorrow……” Tomorrow wasn’t anything that interested him.

“Tomorrow will be like today…..hot and sweaty….can’t go to many places.” She told herself aloud.

The little fellow was wondering if he could ask for some boiled gram from the seller behind the cart a few metres away towards the gate. “There’s a gram cart….” he tells the old woman. “Shall I go and ask for little?”

“Hmm…don’t go far….can’t shout for you”. Still sorting out coins, she said more to herself than to the little fellow. “Everything will be cheap that person is saying!….loudspeakers may be lying. Who knows?” Her thoughts told her loud enough.

The little fellow roams around the gram cart unnoticed by any there. Few bought gram and went off while some stood there listening to the humourless, but straight talking speaker on the stage. The little fellow watched them throw two – three grams at a time into their mouths, quite casually. Not interested in counting how many they munched each time. He slowly edged himself to the cart and held onto its side handle.

“Hey….hey go” The elderly man, with a large hanky rolled and tied round his head over the brows, shouted at the little fellow. “You….go…Run”

The old woman was also calling out for him. He was reluctant to go without a few grams for him. He looked at those men who were standing around with his pale and lazy eyes. Elderly men, they were mostly. Some were young, but not very young. Some were in trousers and some in white sarong and long white cotton banyan. Few women though. Some wore skirts and most wore slacks. One person eating gram there caught the little one’s almost pleading stare. He gave a friendly look and nodded at the little fellow. That clearly meant ‘come’.

“Hope they can make the ‘Change’ they promise” he told the other standing next to him, while handing the little fellow his half eaten packet of boiled gram. “At least abolishing presidency…?” He sounded elated.

The little one was thrilled. Wondered whether to run or to gallop towards the old lady. Instead he did a quick walk round the gram cart looking at the gram within the packet. He wouldn’t know how many grams there were. He was happy with almost half the paper packet having boiled gram with few small pieces of stained white coconut. Before he completed the round he was called by the other person there. “Here……take this” The little fellow was too amused with his grams, he didn’t look at the coin. Just pocketed it and ran away. Not interested in the little fellow anymore the other person was telling his colleague “This time people will not allow them to do what they want….see the crowd……no one is leaving” Then added as if on hindsight, “They will have to keep the promises.”

“Where did you go?..... It’s late….we have to go” the old woman was folding her mat carefully and neat. “The meeting….still going-no?”

The little fellow took the palm of the old woman and dropped some gram onto the haggard and wrinkled palm. “Eat…..people are still there….big crowd”

“It is late…. Dark it must be….there… crows making so much noise”. She picked gram by gram and munched each gram between her left molars…. Slowly.

Crows were making a rowdy, screeching noise above the tree trying to find their perch for the night. Street lights had also been switched on. People now seemed eager to leave. The gram seller was cleaning up his cart.

“Over Sir….nothing left” he told the person who had come for some gram. “No pineapple men also no.” The other person was in a complaint mood. “Yes Sir…he went early….very big crowd-no Sir….today”. And he slowly pushed his cart on to the road.

The little fellow saved a few grams in the soiled paper packet and tucked it in his trouser pocket. “Shall we?” he asked the old woman picking her walking stick.

Here and there few people were moving out of the rally, wanting to get back home. They were in two’s and three’s. Discussing what the speakers said. Discussing them the way they wanted to understand what they heard. Adding what they thought about the ‘big rally’ too, in between quick steps to the bus halt near the Town Hall. The three elderly men ahead of the old woman and the little boy were hoarse and loud.

“If they at least….abolish the executive presidency….that would do”. One, told his two companions. “Can do it….no one will say ‘no’ now. So two thirds is possible”.

“They must immediately stop this bloody corruption….unbelievable corruption-no. See the amounts they told…. I’m sure we will come to know more cases after elections”. Another added.

“You mean…we would win this time?” asked another in a gleeful tone.

“Do you want to eat….in the night?....You had enough gram-no?” The old woman asked the little fellow ambling along by her side holding on to her walking stick. A groaning silence between their dragging feet was broken by the rolling buses and their jumbo-loud horns screaming at vehicles in front. The old woman moved her hand towards the little chaperone of hers, trying to hold him. After a little wavering she caught his shoulder. Held him firm but affectionately, while making their way along the not so crowded pavement. The walking stick in her other hand was being dragged without purpose.

“I like that piece…..that piece Dissanayake said…” One in a group that went past the two, told others. “If you want to change the fate of the country….it is your responsibility….Ours is then a duty to see the change through”. He could remember the whole phrase, or seemed to. “Good one….now it is our fate and we have to change it” He gave his own explanation too.

“Can buy a Dosai and share…..” The old woman told the little boy. He was routinely silent. “You like plain tea-no?”

He casually picked a gram from the packet in his trouser pocket and slipped it into his mouth. Then picked a few more, took the old woman’s hand on his shoulder and kept the grams in her palm.

“Grams? From where now?.....” She was certainly surprised. The little fellow thought he doesn’t have to answer her. He slipped another into his mouth.

“Any way…..we’ll share a Dosai and have plain tea.” She told him without a sigh being drawn in. This was the only life she knew and didn’t need any sigh to drag her through it. “Got few rupees more today……” She thought the little fellow heard her.

Suddenly he remembered he too had a coin in his pocket. Pulled it out and gave it to the old woman. She stopped, kept it flat on one palm and felt it with two fingers from the other. “Two rupees.” she said putting it in her cloth bag on the shoulder. They walked in silence. Crossed the road from near the Mosque and ambled towards the vegetarian café past the bus halt. Silence between them was nothing new to the little fellow. He took her by the hand. “Four small steps…..turn left.” He told her.

“What to do? This is our ‘Karma’…. Can’t change it….have to walk through till the end…” she murmured to herself. “Just wondering what yours will be after me”.

The little fellow didn’t understand anything. “Careful…. a step here”. His was the small world that can afford a “big” half a dosai and a cup of plain tea that night.

Kusal Perera

kusalperera.blogspot.