She looks at the carton that reads, "Aamche baagetoon, tumche tablavar" (from our orchard to your table). The same story, every summer! Come May, come mangoes and all those sweet memories that once lived a golden period. Shama is instantly deported to the past...
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"You still haven't left? It's 7 o'clock already! Why do you have to always keep me waiting?" yells Sohail on the phone.
"I am on the way Sohail, just gimme 15 more minutes", replies Shama frantically. She's such a liar. She'll take another fifteen minutes to iron the sea green tunic that she carelessly left in the balcony to dry just an hour ago. Yes, she has to dry it, put it on, wear the minimal but quintessential make-up that Sohail adores and be at the apartment twelve kilometers away, all in fifteen minutes! She's always been like this. Doing nothing the whole day and fumbling the last minute ! But Sohail loves it. Everytime he would see her prim up in five minutes flat, he would say in a sing song tone,"Jaadu hai, koi toh jaadu hai !" and would plant a gentle kiss on her forehead.
But today she's late. Her mind wanders to think of some excuse that would pacify Sohail's anger and 'blink' God sends the Alphonsos ! She spots the 'aamwale bhaiya' by the roadside. Hastily, she stuffs her backpack with five of those irresistible intoxicating yellow fruit.
"Bhaiya, jaldi mein hoon, khule nahi hain, paise kal le lena!" and before the poor fellow can understand what's happening, she's off!
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"Thad thad thad", she bangs at the door. Sohail silently unlocks it. 'Thaddddddd...' and the door swings wide open. She's just not tripped. But now she's got the chance and chance par toh dance karna banta hai, that's her birth right:)
"I could have fallen Sohail, I could have broken my arm! And how many times have I told you to get the stupid door bell repaired? Don't you realize how bloody irritating it is to call you to open the door? And why don't you pick up the damn phone? " she says in her characteristic high pitched voice pretending to be angry. Sohail doesn't reply, just gives her his typical not-again look.
Ooopsss, this didn't work! After all, Sohail knows every trick of hers. She opens her bag with a fake pata-nahi-sab-mujhe-hi-kyu-karna-padta-hai expression. She takes out those juicy fruits one by one. With two mangoes in each hand, she walks towards Sohail. Now it's Sohail's turn. "Fridge wahan hai, yahan nahi", he too tries to pretend to be angry.
"Did I say you are a fridge? Main toh sirf tumhe bhog laga rahi thi. Just smell these Alphonsos once." She winks.
"I am hungry, haven't had anything after breakfast, can we have dinner?", asks Sohail in an irritated tone.
"You lay the dishes, I'll cut these mangoes. Man, I just want to eat all of them all at once! Can't wait any longer", she says her mouth watering.
Like an obedient one-woman man, Sohail spreads out the newspapers on the window sill. They always dine over there, fighting over small things and then looking out of the French window to convey their disagreements. They always eat from one plate, no matter how blood-thirsty they are for each other!
After having just five morsels from the plate, Shama gets up, "I am done, now I'll have mangoes."
On a normal day Sohail would have said,"That's very bad Shama. Everytime you do this and then you trouble me the whole night saying, 'I am hungry.' " But today he's angry, he's really angry. He just doesn't respond.
She brings the chilled freshly cut Alphonsos from the freezer and shamelessly starts nibbling at them.
"Ummmm.Heaven!"she says making all those faces while Sohail watches her with a mixed expression of anger and love.
Two, three, four...she gorges herself with the mango slices. And then suddenly, "You wanna have some?" she asks. Sohail wants to say 'Yes'.
"No," says Sohail.
"Aaaahhh ! I forgot. Mangoes aren't meant for you, you develop boils. Badddd, how can I forget that ugly scar on your knee!!! Sorry baby, you have one more chapati." she teases him.
"But one slice doesn't make a difference." dryly he mutters but ensuring he's loud enough to be heard.
"We'll have milk as soon as we finish this. That would balance it.What say?" she says acting more innocent than him. That said, Sohail pounces on the plate as she watches him guzzle the mango slices. She's happy with the guthlis(mango seeds). She just loves them. She had to eat those slices just to get him to eat!
Anger blows out like ash.They would have a great night. Fighting, crying, laughing, dancing and eating mangoes! Sohail and Shama...!
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