Going Home by Lakshmi Kannan

Author:Lakshmi Kannan [Kannan, Lakshmi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9788125046875
Publisher: Orient Blackswan Private Ltd.
Published: 2018-08-19T18:30:00+00:00

PART III

1

We were all set for the house-warming in our new DDA flat on the coming Sunday. We had planned a quiet celebration with a few close friends. My parents had come from Mysore. I collected all the things we had bought for the housewarming and dumped the unopened parcels in one room of the new flat before locking it up. Things needed to be kept safe until we moved in. There was still a lot of painting, polishing and other activities to be completed in the flat. Shankar was discussing some things with the contractor. I stood waiting for him beside the large single window of the living room in the new flat. Through the window it looked as if the whole wide world outside had shrunk to the size of the rectangular window, as if the window had become a frame around a defined space. It was ten in the night. I peered through the darkness. The windows of the other D.D.A. flats in the neighborhood shone with a dull light. Small outlets of light and space, allowing the people inside to breathe. Windows like 'eyes' that gave away the secrets of the inhabitants. Will these flats squeeze the inhabitants and cut them down to size, so that they become small enough to fit into the tiny spaces.

I could see everything clearly from the window on the first floor — the green grass below, the plants and trees lining the road in the dimness of the street lights. I felt an itch in the soles of my feet. I longed to run out barefoot. I wanted to walk and run, feel the grass and the earth with my bare feet. I itched to throw away the sandals from my feet, and run...

Run where?

* * *

"I must go home."

"There you go again, g...o...ho...me. Stupid girl! Singing the same tune over and over again. How can you start this refrain again Gayatri, at a moment like this?"

"But I..."

"Hush Gayatri. Don't disturb us just when the game is warming up. Don't spoil it, please!"

"But I must go, it's getting late. My grandpa must be waiting for me. Bye! Let's meet in the park tomorrow."

"Go then! And listen Gayatri, don't bother to come to the park tomorrow. We don't want you in our group anymore. You don't have to come, ever again!"

"O.K." said Gayatri, smiling in return, letting their curses slide off like water down a duck's back. She began walking briskly down the road, her slim long legs striding along the kerb till she was almost running.

Ah! Here is RETREAT. Buried like a jewel in the fresh grass of the garden. Large, expansive, the gleaming woodwork and the polished exterior adding to its cool grace.

"Thatha, I'm home!"

"Hullo there", said her grandfather. His face had a certain patrician charm. He bent down to kiss the little girl. Gayatri buried her face in his shoulders. She was enveloped by the fragrance of Pears soap and lavender talc.

* * *

What kind of despondency is this? I should not allow myself to languish in this.

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