Deeper she dwelled into her parallel universe,
it seemed it pulled her closer to skin and bones,
Not once did she realize that God had a plan and that something big was waiting for her at the end of this phenomenon called civilized crime.
Meet Ramen Zaheer, the princess of Kalbadevi. Born and bought up in the heart of the city of dreams, she woke up that morning feeling ill. A short bob to accentuate her soft curls that complimented her 5"3 inches with a bit of chubby and glowing complexion. You couldn't say she was fat but her cheeks oozed out when she smiled over a medium body type that people liked to call her cute at 25.
Ramen had just returned yesterday night back to the bay after ten long months in Chennai, having completed her post grad in Journalism, from a pricey private institute she wouldn't want to promote.
Ramen woke up to the whistling sound of the tea pot from her next door neighbor's kitchen in whose house you could literally see through from the adjoined walls and windows of the 105 year old five story building her ancestors had built in the reign of early bird gets the worm in Bombay. Needless to say, the heart of the city now belonged to the bustling traffic near Crawford Market on one side and Marine drive on the other. Everything in between was crowded with theatres, cafes, high-end restaurants, schools that doubled up as marriage venues, colleges that bragged of future industrialists and delicious food hawkers that literally destroyed the eat -at -home discipline for almost every resident in the old town. How can I not mention the historic stature of the city, Victoria Terminus that stands tall in the middle of all the hustle and every morning transports new dreamers with a test of do or die?
Narrow lane streets that canopied to cover the transparency between adjoining old buildings and blue collared laborers that sat under them for daily wages protected the young women from trespassers even in the middle of the night. Wired skies that ran from one terrace to another from across the streets where crows perched all day accompanying grannies grinding spices in the balconies.
Cat litter to dog milk and BMC trucks to clean up the streets early morning that halted vehicles on their way to another new town from the JJ bridge. Toddlers trudging home from school behind tensed moms, in low back saris, always in a hurry to catch the latest episodes from the Saas Bahus that dished out fresh controversies for them to escape their bleak, cash crunched realities and wayfarers running along in the crowd to make ends meet adorned the old town of Kalbadevi.
Anyway, so it was Monday and Ramen felt ill as she woke up. She heard it. She ignored it and went into the living cum kitchen area of the two BHK that pralines from one gangway to another. Her room was on one end and her parents were having breakfast on the other end when she approached them. Nobody knew so far.
She heard mom and dad whispering to each other, something about, "We can't tell her Zubair. Not yet." "I know Pankti but what if she finds out on her own? You know curiosity always killed our little Persian cat!"
Ramen was a cocktail of a Bohri father and a Gujju mother. Her father was a retired factory owner now trader and her mother chose kitties and cooking as her lifestyle. Her sister was married in Singapore and after that her parents had become Kind of slow...paced.
The Zaheers' were a simple, urban middle class family whose roots dated back to when Bombay was a dockyard for substance trading-to put it mildly. They knew no other place as home and their vacations were limited to Galyakot in Rajasthan that her dad insisted Ramen needed to visit once a year at least to ward of the demons off her and Pune where her mother's family resided.
Simple, humble and foolish because of their vulnerable innocence they hardly stood up for themselves let alone for Ramen now that she needed a strong support more than ever.
Ramen, "Mom, I don't feel so well."
Pankti, "Maari dikri, I'll give you hot Bornvita, you'll be fine."
Ramen resigned on the small couch and said, "Ya mom." It happened. Now her heart beat faster, she ignored it again. Had milk, showered and ran out of home in a hope to escape that..
Ramen dressed in shorts and a basic T, slung her bag pack across herself and in weather beaten sneakers walked with a hurried panache out of her lane. She hailed a cab and sighed a sigh of relief.
She lit a smoke exactly five meters away from home and looked out of the window into the power packed pollution of trucks and cars passing out the expensive fuel gas into smoke lavishly.
She then turned to the driver and started chatting him up. This was one thing she waited a whole year to do that she couldn't in Chennai due to Tamil illiteracy. "Bhaiyya, kahan ka hai apka gaadi?"
The driver smiled to himself. "Virar ki hai. Subah pure 2000 ki boni hui to yahaan se bhara lekar fir se ghar ki taraf."
"Acha bhaiyaa Marine drive se lena. Sea se pass ho te hue Babulnath dosa aur fir palladium, lower parel. Theek hai bhaiyaa?"
"Ji madam."
No sooner than the driver said those reassuring words to his patron than it side collided with a Merc. The taxi and the car came to an abrupt halt. "Bhaiyaa! Dekh ke toh chalte!" "Arey Madam, ye gaadi khud hi paas ayi, mein kya karta?!"
Suddenly someone rolled the shielded glass windows down of the car and peeped out of one of them facing Ramen. She was scared thinking anyway she had enough problems in life and now this and what if the police intervene and then they even find out.. No way! "Dude like what's your driver's problem? Can't see?"
Now the rugged yet fair V shaped sharp face and a proud nose became visible to her. Hmm...Good looking she thought.
"Lady, it's not my driver. It's yours. He was busy chatting with you and didn't see us coming."
"So? You could have just changed your lane, right ? "
"Umm excuse me Miss, but have you ever driven?"
Now embarrassed but with foolish pride Ramen declared, "You excuse me! I haven't and wouldn't want to with people like you around littering our roads!"
Now the fair, sharp nosed guy looked at Ramen with curiosity he didn't know that overcame him. Something suddenly told him she was it! Mom!! He'd found her!!! He smiled but Ramen snorted at him and they both locked eyes before her driver bhaiyaa sped off.
Ramen was overcome with a feeling of passion unknown to her 25 single years and she thought she was wet! "Fuck my life. Stranger loser!! Bhaiyya abhi theek se chalao okay? So much for the salt water to heal me!!!"
Ramen returned home after sunset and dashed against her headboard of the bed. It happened. Not even let her breathe peacefully! She kept quiet and was about to dose off into fitful sleep when she heard a voice in her head, "Ramen, hi, I'm Vishal Agnihotri. I know all about you and I'm 30. Unmarried and looking for you."
Ramen froze in her slumber and thought she was losing her mind after all. That instant it started raining heavily in May and she was about to explode her secret to her parents when she heard him again. "Ramen, chill. Acknowledge but do not respond to that. Time will come. By the way, who made it rain right now?"
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