EVENING
It was evening in Chennai, there was a possibility of rain later that night, but right then it was just pleasantly breezy. Suresh was walking out of school after having finished his athletics practice, he was twelve. Suresh loved to run, one of his fantasies involved being given a vast endless track with savannas on both sides of it; to run, like the breeze itself, worrying about nothing, just blowing away far into the sunset. He was sweating like a thief on the run, the cool breeze was soothing, with the spikes in his hands he made out of the gate at the exact same time as on rest of the days. As if by instinct he headed straight for the juice shop opposite the school. The juice shop owner; Mari Anna smiled at Suresh as he walked into the store and ordered his usual lime juice, as usual he declined to eat any on the puffs, or samosas or the other oily stuff. All that was on his mind was the APSCE meet in one week's time; he was running for gold in the junior’s category. At that moment, like on all days Anisha walked out of the school gate.
Suresh had always been a poor student academically, but on the field he was a little short of god himself. Be it on the track, or on the football field he thrived hard to be the best, and more often than not he was successful. It made him feel as if he belonged to this school, they held him like a priced asset, and it made him feel worthy. So no matter how hot it was or how breezy it was or how cold it was he never missed the practice sessions in the evenings. He ran alone sometimes, company was not something that kept him going, it was something else, the drive perhaps to be the best at something.
He was the last son to his parents who parented in all five children. Being younger to two brothers and two sisters was no easy task; many in the past have suffered through these pressures, Suresh had unwillingly joined that list. His suffering was not in the treatment, but in the expectations. His brothers were in engineering colleges, one sister was a practicing doctor, and another was a brain asset doing her tenth standard in the same school. Under the circumstances Suresh's love for the world of track and field was quite a disappointment for the family. They let him do as he pleases, but they dint love it. They dint celebrate his winnings and dint console him during his defeats. Suresh was living a life that was to his family, in a large sense purposeless.
A quiet blush sneaked past behind the skin of his face as he saw Anisha walk out of the gate and cross the road towards the ice-cream store next to the juice shop. His eyes stayed on her as she made it into the ice-cream store. Quickly then he finished his juice, paid, and went off to take his position. He walked a little distance away from the school and crossed back to the school side of the road. He smiled at the pav bhaji wala who smiled back at him. The one rupee that was remaining he tossed into the plate of the blind beggar who sat on the other side of the pav bahaji cart. The blind man smiled and said "So running over today?” Suresh replied affirmatively and began chatting with the old blind beggar as usual. After sometime he noticed Anisha walk out of the ice cream shop, cross the road and take up her position a little way away from Suresh's own standing spot. She was waiting for her dad to come by and pick her up. He was waiting for her dad to come by and pick her up. It was the best part of the day for Suresh as he chatted with a stranger who felt more close than family and as he looked at a girl who looked more like an angel.
"Did i tell you that long ago, before i was blinded in the factory accident i used to play hockey?"
"yes, and you were bloody magnificient" Suresh confirmed. The pav bhaji wala smiled and shook his head, the reaction of a man who had heard the story one too many times.
"The ball used to stay stuck to my hockey stick as if it was attached with some glue, and magically it would leave the stick to fly into the back of the goal net..."
The blind beggar went on to narrate the other fine achievements of his sighted self. Suresh knew the tales by heart, so he kept the blind man talking by adding a 'oh' or a 'ok...’ at the right moments. His eyes though were on Anisha who was standing a little to his left and a little in front of him. Every now and then a bit of what the blind man said would be loud enough to carry to her ears and she'd turn back instinctively to catch Suresh looking in her direction- uncomfortable seconds.
In class he was one of those quiet ones who sat minding his own business in the far corner of the class. Once in a while he'd look in the general direction of Anisha and catch a glimpse of her earring. She had a unique set of earrings; it was designed in a very different manner. Not that Suresh knew a lot about earrings but he liked this one. Two things he liked about her actually, the only two things he even bothered to study. One was the side of her face with the earrings (left, right, whichever his position bestowed), the other -the part of her legs that began where her skirt ended and ended where her socks began. He was in love with both of them. And that is all it was, a slight earring-leg crush. He never told anyone, he was one of those guys people don’t normally associate with people.
Once there had been an incident that had caused him to get into the limelight, and it wasn’t a very good experience. Sudheer had gotten into an argument with him regarding a very silly matter. Sudheer had just fought with Rajneesh and the whole class agitated about it except of course Suresh. Sudheer and Rajneesh used to sit next to each other and after the fight that wasn’t possible so Sudheer decided to go back and take Suresh's place. When Suresh returned it irked him that his earring sighting position was being taken away from him. When he refused to move and tried to create a scene instead he got a proper thumping from Suresh. The fact that Anisha had a crush on Sudheer made Suresh once and for all the bad guy in her eyes. He did not care. He was still in love with her earring-leg combo.
All of a sudden, while the beggar was still talking about the league quarter final match where he scored the crucial goal, the clouds decided to give way and it began drizzling. The pav bhaji guy began closing his cart, the people on the roan rushed to the shade of the road side shops, Anisha headed for the juice shop and Suresh had a mind of following her. Suddenly he realized that the old blind beggar had no idea what to do, so he rushed back to the supposedly ex hockey hero and helped him get up and get into the shade. When it started raining heavily Suresh rushed to get the plastic sheet on which the beggar had been sitting so that he could use it to cover the beggar’s head to help him stay dry. As soon as Suresh left the beggar’s side, the beggar thought Suresh was gone and he too stumbled to reach his plastic sheet. It was at this moment that a bike skidded off the recently wet road and ran straight into the beggar who collapsed in a heap. Everyone present rushed to the spot, Anisha included.
"Stop a vehicle, get him to the hospital!" people were crying. As if sent by the gods a car screeched to a halt next to the crowd. Suresh recognized the car to be Anisha's. Immediately he began calling for people to help him carry the beggar to the car. Anisha was explaining something to someone inside the car. At last she then turned back with an apologetic look on her face. Within the next few seconds she got into the car and the car sped away leaving the beggar carrying crowd wondering what was happening. Suresh had never been so angry as he was when he drove along with an auto driver to the hospital with the beggar in the back seat. He was fuming. Anisha would die tomorrow.
The storm that came was the worst that Chennai had faced in a decade. Roads were filled with water. Every natural and manmade pot hole was leveled out by water. Government declared the next two days as holidays for schools and colleges. After the two days there was the weekend to follow. Four days Suresh spent in his house analyzing and re analyzing what had happened. He wondered what happened to the beggar whom he had left in the hospital. Thinking hard he realized that what happened was in no way Anisha's fault. She did not even know the beggar, an yet she had tried to persuade whoever it was inside the car to help the poor blind man, and when she had to give in to the selfishness of the car owner she had such a sorry look on her face that it made Suresh feel ashamed now that he had felt anger towards her. That sorry look came again and again in front of his eyes for those four days. The focus had shifted from the earring-leg to something in the eyes. He thought more and more about the shame in the helpless eyes, the care in the clueless face and the heart that housed all these feelings. Some queer thing was happening to him. It was both nice and frightening.
Sunday evening when the rain abated, Suresh headed to the hospital to check on the beggar. They told him he had become fine by that morning and had chosen to leave. They also told him that they guy who had hit the beggar had settled the hospital charges. That night he lay in his bed wondering where the beggar might be, and if he would see him the next day. Then his thoughts shifted, and he saw Anisha's face again.
Monday morning as Suresh rushed into the school in the last moment, he noticed that the beggar was not there. The whole day he was restless. When he looked in Anisha's direction he felt a lump rise up to his throat. Once when both their eyes met he felt something he never felt before; fear.
In the evening Suresh was standing and looking at the spot where the beggar usually sat. In his place was the blue plastic sheet. There was some stagnant water on the sheet. On the puddle were a couple of leaves dancing around each other. He was staring at the absent beggar when he heard a voice from his back say "how is he?"
He turned back and his legs almost gave way when he realized it was Anisha. It was the first time ever that she had spoken to him. "I don’t know" he said. She looked at the plastic sheet as she said "I am Sorry" carrying the same apologetic look on her face that had haunted him for the last four days.
"It is ok" said Suresh. It was that time in the evening when the soft wind consoled the broken leaves and carried them away to some place better.
