By Sushi
Maithili sneaked a peek at her potential groom from the kitchen door.
He sat in the living room talking to her mother.
Maithili had refused to see him but her mother insisted.
She had seen ten men in a row, but nothing had worked out.
One of them had even called her “fast”…for being honest about her previous boyfriend.
Honesty clearly wasn’t the best policy when it came to relationships, she thought.
The hoot of a local train brought Maithili back to her senses.
A fast train flew across the railway track opposite her kitchen window carrying thousands of people farther into the city.
She ignored it and stirred some dosa batter.
Her parrot, Janardhan, sat on the window sill surveying the streets.
“What does he know about me, Janardhan?”asked Maithili.
The parrot bobbed its head.
“Will he judge me badly, like all the men before him?”
Janardhan screeched:
“You are fast, man…Maithili…you are fast, man…Maithili…you are…”
“Shut up, Janardhan!”
Maithili hissed at Janardhan as he turned a beady eye to see her cook.
The rascal kept repeating whatever he heard.
“You are fast, man…Maithili…you are fast, man…Maithili…you are…”
Maithili banged a spatula twice to shut the bird up.
“Maithili?”
It was her mother.
Why had she even asked this man to stay for dinner?
“All okay,”said Maithili.
She poured a ladle full of batter on a hot tawa and spread it out.
“Hi there.”
Her potential groom walked in without warning.
Maithili’s legs felt weak as he stood beside her and said:
“You know I used to see you walk back from school every evening?”
She looked up at him.
The sun shone fiercely on his soft brown hair.
He smelled of the peppermint sweets Maithili loved as a child.
She bought them from Uncle Balthazar, whom everyone called one-legged Balthazar.
She wondered where he was now, old Uncle Balthazar.
A train moaned past her home shaking her out of her reverie.
“Oh, you live here?”she asked.
She realized she had forgotten his name.
“I live on the next street. I was in Bangalore for a while, but am back now.”
Janardhan squawked:
“You are fast, man…Maithili…you are fast, man…Maithili…you are…”
Maithili’s bangles tinkled angrily as she banged the spatula again.
“What’s the parrot saying?”he asked.
Maithili lowered the flame and knotted her thick hair high up on her head.
“He says I am “fast”…like this city, like the girls here…we move from one man to the other quickly…like butterflies.”
The dosa stuck to the tawa.
“Is that true?”he asked.
“What do you think?”
“I think everyone lives as per their circumstances, as per their spirit. Some take ages to forget stuff, some live more in the moment.”
Maithili sat on a chair and closed her eyes, as if his reply had freed her from something.
He gently took the spatula from her trembling hand and scraped off the burnt batter.
Then he greased the tawa and spread out a fresh dosa as Maithili spoke.
“Thank you for your kindness, but women who have multiple relationships — the “fast” ones — are looked down upon by most people here.”
He drizzled some oil on the dosa and spoke again.
“They fear women who aren’t afraid to let go of those that aren’t meant for them.”
Maithili said nothing.
“We all wear layers and layers of emotional paint, Maithili…some more than others. Behind it — man or woman — we are all more or less the same.”
He slipped the spatula under the dosa and flipped it.
“You talk well,”she said.
He touched the parrot’s feathers.
“You are fast, man…Maithili…you are fast, man…Maithili…you are…”
Maithili glared at the bird as he readied a plate for the dosa.
“I have no interest in your past, Maithili. I see a future with you, if you see it too.”
He turned to look at Maithili, but she pretended to clean the oven.
How else could she hide the blush that crept up her cheeks?
She straightened herself after a few seconds and shut the oven door.
“Hmm. You want to know nothing about my past?”
“No.”
“Could it be that YOU want to hide something from ME…about your own history?”asked Maithili.
She chuckled but he knew she wasn’t joking.
He folded the dosa and set it aside before turning to face her again.
“Tell me, what do you want to know about me — who I dated or who I dumped?”
Maithili pretended to wash a glass when he added:
“How will you verify what I say? Will you go around looking for my ex-girlfriends?”
“I am not a lunatic,”she said.
“Maithili…sometimes, the only way to get into a relationship is to risk it. Are you willing to put your faith in me?”
She opened her mouth to say something but a jangling train sped across the track as if the world was on fire.
He squinted at it through the window and said:
“The only thing that’s fast here is Mumbai ki fast local.”
Maithili grinned and rubbed Janardhan’s head.
“He didn’t bite you,”she said.
“I used to feed a stray parrot before. I don’t see it now.”
“Oh…I must tell you that I didn’t buy this bird. Janardhan just flew in one morning. Could he be the same parrot?”
He stared at Janardhan.
“I like you too, Mahesh…I like you…I like you…I like you, Mahesh!”
“I like you too, Janardhan,”said Mahesh.
Maithili could see his eyes soften as he shook his head and laughed.
“Do you want him back?”she asked.
He shifted his gaze to her bright young face.
“You didn’t answer me, Maithili. If you like me too, we can look after him together.”
She spoke after a full minute.
“Why are you so sure of me?”
“I am not sure of anyone or anything, but I am willing to risk it for you.”
“But why?”
He leaned towards her a little.
“Look at me carefully, Maithili.”
Maithili studied his eyes and hair and angular face…and…
…she stuttered…
“Are you…you…I have seen you…”
“…at Balthazar’s shop,”said Mahesh.
“You must be…”
“…the boy who helped him carry things from one end of his shop to the other.”
Maithili covered her mouth with her hands.
“My mother didn’t tell me.”
“She didn’t know. I told her all this while you were busy talking to Janardhan.”
“But…Mahesh…what do you know about me?”
She tasted his name on her lips. It didn’t feel alien.
“I know you were the only one who called him Uncle Balthazar, not one-legged Balthazar. His eyes used to light up when you walked into his store, Maithili. You could look past his limp and honor the being in him. Doesn’t that tell me enough about you?”
Maithili wanted to sit down and cry.
“Besides, if you are good enough to love a bird that can promise you nothing in return, you are good enough for me,”he said.
Janardhan ruffled his feathers.
“Where’s Uncle Balthazar now?”asked Maithili.
“He is gone…like those peppermint sweets he gave you…time swallowed them all.”
She smelled the air around her.
“Do you know you smell like those sweets?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders.
“You always get what you look for.”
She was surprised to hear her own laughter. It was open and honest, as if the child in her still lived.
Maithili wanted Mahesh to keep talking — for the evening to never end — but a moaning train interrupted their romance again.
They watched it hurtle across the city, as if the world was on fire.
“Mumbai ki fast local…Mumbai ki fast local…Mumbai ki fast local…”
…squawked Janardhan as Mumbai’s blazing sun drew the curtain on yet another eventful day.
(ends)