Page 15 of Musafir Cafe

‘I don’t get it, but whatever it is, it sounds nice.’

‘What sounds nice is generally nice, and what doesn’t sound nice isn’t nice even if it actually is.’

‘Quit smoking.’

‘Can’t, but keep asking me to. I might actually get into the mood to do it.’

‘Okay, can I say something?’

‘Just go ahead and say it, don’t ask.’

‘Quit smoking?’

‘Can’t do it today, ask after a few days.’

‘It’s pretty easy to quit smoking, yaar. There are so many ads in the papers about how to quit smoking.’

‘Don’t you worry, whatever I quit, I quit for good. If I quit smoking, I’ll quit it forever.’

‘And me?’

‘I’d never let you go, because I didn’t hold you back in the first place.’

‘Listen …’

‘What?’

‘Quit smoking.’

‘If you keep repeating this so much then I’ll quit right now.’

‘Then quit, na?’

‘Not the cigarette, you. Don’t take whatever I say after smoking seriously. I do it just for the heck of it.’

‘I am actually wondering if I should start smoking too?’

‘Are you out of your mind? No, don’t do it.’

‘Why? If you can smoke, why can’t I?’

‘Because habits die hard.’

Chandar tried smoking a couple of times, trying to ape Sudha, but she would get super mad at him. More than her smoking, Chandar liked it when Sudha stopped him from doing it.

C for Chow Mein

It’s not like Sudha didn’t look for PGs during the weekend. But no one realizes when the newspapers keep piling up and become this huge pile. Just like that, Chandar and the maid didn’t notice Sudha living with them.

Many times one finds lost days with tea leaves in the trash. We end up selling many days like these at throwaway prices. We’re yet to learn how to do transactions. We spend our entire lives worrying about earning something we have no clue about, and fail to realize what to sell and what to save.

Sigh! Wish there was some other world whose door opened from this one. Wish that life went backwards in that parallel universe so people could make fixed deposits of their childhoods.

One day, when Chandar was about to trash the old newspapers, she said, ‘Just a minute, show me that paper.’

‘Here, take it.’

‘It’s been a month since I came here.’