The Scene Behind a Veil

by Sami Ahmed

  The panicked passengers immediately launched into an argument with the bus staff and the manager of the pick-up point. How could they issue tickets for the bus that had no national permit? The manager informed us they had been expecting the permit by the time the bus would start. But they hadn’t got it, so they were bringing another bus from some other travel agency. In the end, out of utter helplessness, passengers decided to wait.

  It was a long journey ahead, more than twenty hours of travel. Cursing the management of the bus, I got down and filled my stomach with some light food at the fast food centre by the road side. Still I had an hour and a half to pass. Not knowing how to kill the boredom waiting usually brings, I got into the bus and began to observe the passers-by on the road, which is my favourite pass-time.

  I saw three teenage girls walking on the pavement. Probably they were going to college; they had small bags hanging from their shoulders. Of the three, the girl in the middle attracted my eyes. She was not that beautiful, but was good-looking, with a pair of green eyes.

  Suddenly, she looked up at me and our eyes met for a few seconds. I gave her a warm smile, to which she quickly turned her face away. Maybe she thought me rude. But I kept looking at her till the trio disappeared at the circle. Then I forgot about her soon, as my eyes began to chase other girls on the road.

  Two hours were over, but still there was no sign of the other bus. We were informed we had to wait half an hour more. As the passengers had become listless, they didn’t put up any protest at all. What a great start, I thought.

  As I was staring out of the window, I again saw the green-eyed girl on the pavement along with her two friends. She too looked at me at the same time. First, there was puzzlement on her face, probably she was wondering why the bus had been standing there for more than two hours. Then, her features softened and I thought she was smiling at me. Maybe it was my illusion. But one thing was sure, there was a spark in her eyes, which I hadn't noticed earlier.

  Oh! How beautiful her green eyes were!

  The three girls went into the hotel in which I had taken snacks two hours before. For a moment I considered getting out and following them. But my senses thought it rude, so I remained glued to my seat.

  After a few minutes the three girls came out and the green-eyed beauty looked at me again. I smiled and so did she. Her response surprised me, but I didn’t know the mega surprise was yet to come.

  While passing the bus, she unobtrusively dropped a ball of paper on the ground. I was totally mystified as to whether it was just a piece of waste paper or some letter she had intentionally dropped for me.

  I waited for the girls to disappear, and then hurried down. Looking around to ensure nobody was observing me, I quickly bent down, picked up the crumpled paper-ball and excitedly unfolded it. God! There was something written on it.

  As I began to read, my heart went mmmmmm.....

  Hi,

  It was my luck you were there in the morning while I was going to college. You know these days all the unfortunate things in the world are happening to me? Mother scolded me in the morning saying I wasn't doing any household work, so I had to do a lot of cleaning and washing at home today. Then Father told me my grades were bad and I was unfit for education, so I should give up studies, get married soon and ultimately go away from him. You know my grades aren’t that bad. I have no bad habits and love my parents a lot. But still I don’t know why I am always getting all these warnings and reproaches from my parents and sometimes from my teachers. Maybe I don’t know how to please them; I’m not smart enough to live on this earth. I didn't know what was going to happen to the seminar I had to deliver in the class. I had practiced well last night but didn’t remember a bit, thanks to my mummy and papa. You know I made a fool of myself during my last seminar?

  Then, you smiled at me. I do know this smile, the smile boys always give to girls. It brightened me and made me think I’m not that dumb, there are people who like me and smile at me. I am attractive and intelligent, am I not? You don’t know how much confidence your smile pumped into my lungs. In college my seminar became a success. I told all the rubbish with confidence and, oh my God! People liked it. My madam said, ‘Wow! Well done!' This is really what I needed in my life.

  When I saw your bus still there, I thought I should express my gratitude to you.

  Thank you for your smile. I like it.

   

  The letter ended. There was no name or signature at the end. I looked around to see if she was observing me from any corner or curve, but there was no sign of her.

  This was the first time I realized my smile had so much power in it and could affect others so positively. I too should give her my gratitude. But how? She was nowhere to be seen.

  I closed my eyes and said inwardly, “Thank you, my beautiful green-eyed girl.”  

  Let The Rain Touch The Soul

   

  As it was Friday evening, everybody in the office was high-spirited, chatting, gossiping and exchanging their plans for the weekend. Vineet was thinking of going out and meeting some of his friends. He would have a great time with his buddies, he thought happily. 

  While he was preparing to leave for the day, his boss, Shukla, summoned him to his cabin.

  “Vineet, I have never expected this from you,” Shukla said as soon as he saw Vineet.

  Vineet was confused with this sudden assault. What wrong had he done?

  “How could you make such a bad presentation,” his boss continued. “Our project director is very angry with this, you know?” 

  Vineet understood now what he was talking about. A few days before, Vineet had made a presentation to one of their clients on the new software product the company had developed. Some problem must have come up with this. 

  “What happened, Mr. Shukla? My presentation went well that day; The client even appreciated it,” Vineet said in a sincere tone. 

  “But they rejected the product,” Shukla said curtly.

  Vineet’s face hung at once. “Oh! It is very bad news, Mr. Shukla. He was so keen that day on buying….”

  “Stop it, Vineet,” his boss cut him short. “I know the reason; it’s your presentation.”

  Vineet became flabbergasted and took a while to compose himself. “It must not be because of my presentation, Mr. Shukla,” he said slowly and politely. ”I am sure he was satisfied with the presentation. Maybe they thought it didn’t suit their needs”.

  His boss got angrier with his words. “Then this is your fault only, na? You should know what his requirements are and how to present the stuff to suit those requirements.”

  Vineet was silent. He knew his boss was making him a scapegoat. In fact, Shukla had led the technical team that had developed the new product. The new software might not have met the client’s expectations. What he had done was just present the features of the product to the client. “Most of my previous presentations were successful,” Vineet said to himself. “Nobody had blamed me before if some client declined to give the contract to the company; never was there any problem with my presentations.”

  Now, for the first time, he was being blamed for a fault that was not his completely. He was ready to share the responsibility as a member of the team, but he could not take the full brunt. 

  “Vineet, come out of your thoughts,” growled his boss. “We have a meeting with the director on Monday. Come up with some concrete excuses to justify your failure by that time. He sounded really angry with you.” 

  My failure! It’s your failure, you bloody brute, Vineet wanted to scream. Instead, he just nodded his head in silence. Shukla had already established him with the director as the person responsible for missing the contract.

  Vineet came out of the office, his cheerful mood gone.

  Would the director buy the boss’s theory of my messing up the project? Maybe he would. It was hard for Vineet to imagine the consequences. His performance rating would fall; his bonus and even his increment a
t the year end would be at risk. Management would not remember his past achievements; it would look at this single failure, which was not actually his entirely. Vineet sadly remembered all his plans and expectations which would go off beam if the project director believed Shukla.

  A drop of water suddenly touched Vineet’s right hand. Coming out of his gloomy thoughts, he looked up at the sky. It was overcast. A cool breeze brushed his body.

  Vineet felt a bit quietened, but his mind was still in turmoil. All the hard work he had done so far was going to be washed away because of his boss’s dirty mind. He had been nurturing a dream of becoming project manager. Now he had to crush all his dreams and aspirations in the company. How sad! He sighed.

  Rain drops began to fall on Vineet. First, slowly. Then, at a medium pace. Umbrellas in various colours and sizes at once came into view on the road. People on the street began to run hurriedly everywhere.

  As he did not carry an umbrella, Vineet looked around for some shelter. But his heart urged him to move on. He was completely wet in a few seconds as the slow rain turned into a downpour. Let this rain wash away my misery, he thought and kept walking toward the bus stop.

  To his surprise, Vineet was enjoying his walk in the rain. The rain-soaked buildings and trees lining the road looked beautiful; people, with their colourful umbrellas and raincoats, seemed to relish the downpour beating the earth. ‘How beautiful this rain is!’ Vineet wondered.

  As if some magic had happened, Vineet remembered the words of his director. Six months ago, in a meeting, he said, “Vineet, you are really doing good work! Keep up this, my boy. Maybe next year you will be leading a project on your own.”

  “How much analysis he must have done about my work to have such confidence in me,” Vineet thought. “Would he lose his confidence just because of Mr. Shukla’s dirty game? Certainly not…” This thought made Vineet cheerful again.

  “I should certainly expose Shukla’s game to the director,” Vineet thought determinedly. “Even if the director doesn’t see through Shukla’s mean nature, no problem; I could leave the company. I couldn’t work with people who can’t recognize true talent. My honesty and hard work deserve a better company.”

  Vineet reached his bus stop. But he wanted to walk further to the next bus stop. He wanted the rain to sweep away all his insecurities, dependencies and miseries. He wanted the rain to instil in him more confidence and more strength and vigour. He kept walking on. “Mother Nature always wants its creatures to be happy,” he thought. “Let this rain touch my soul.”

   

   

  Two Sisters and Two Fish

  Her name was Niharika. And the other’s name was Neelima. The amazing thing about them was they were sisters. Sisters by blood, by nature and by looks.

  Neelima was 12 then and Niharika was younger by two years. As usual, the elder always wanted to be the caretaker of her little sister. She wanted Niharika to listen to her every word with attention, to watch her every action with admiration and to follow her every way with passion.

  And the younger always looked to her big sister for more affection and more attention. She absolutely adored the way Neelima called her: “Babu, do this,” “Babu, come here,” “Babu, eat this”.

  Her mama and papa used to call her Babu. It was a magic word for little Niharika. The word ‘Babu’ was full of affection and security, a symbol of her family’s love and fondness for her. However, as she grew up, they stopped calling her Babu and began to use her name, to her amazement, in various forms: Niha, Hari, Niri and all that.

  It was not that Niharika did not like her name, but she liked being called Babu most of all. The only person who still called her Babu was Neelima. How sweet her sister was, she wondered. She knew her mind.

  Of course, Neelima knew her little sister’s favourite name was Babu. Whenever she said, “Babu, bring me some water,” her sister would happily run to the kitchen to fetch her a glass of water. When their father said to her, “Nivi darling, bring me some water,” she would reluctantly stare at her father.

  There was another reason why Neelima still called Niharika ‘Babu’. She subconsciously did not want her little sister to grow up. She always wanted to see her as a little baby in her mother’s lap. She was the object of her affection and love. If Niharika grew up to become a big girl, Neelima would lose her effect on her, which she did not want to happen. But, ultimately and unfortunately for Neelima, it did happen one day.

  On that fateful evening, Neelima asked Niharika to go out to play.

  “No Didi, I am watching TV,” she said, her eyes glued to the television set.

  “You must come, Babu. I told my friend I would bring you. We need three persons to play this game.”

  “No, I won’t come,” Niharika said defiantly. “You take somebody else.”

  Neelima was enormously displeased with her sister. “Babu, this is my final warning! You must come.”

  Little sister got angry at this threat, fixed her eyes on her big sister and said in a firm tone, “I will not come”.

  “In that case, I will not call you Babu anymore.”

  “Then, I too will not call you Didi.”

  From that moment onwards, Niharika never was Babu to her big sister and Neelima was never Didi to her little sister. At first Niharika felt awkward calling her elder sister by name, but she, being a stubborn and determined girl, continued to call her by name. “Neelima, help me in this.” “Neelima, why don’t you come with me?”

  Though the way the two sisters addressed each other had changed, the way they explored the world never changed. The surroundings and environment were always new and fascinating to them. They were always up to some experiment.

  One afternoon, Neelima brought home two small fish, one each in a separate transparent carry bag half-filled with water. At that time, her mother was sleeping in the bedroom, exhausted with the morning’s household work and her father had gone to office.

  “Hey, Niharika, let’s go and play,” she called her little sister, who was scribbling in her notebook. When Niharika saw the fish in the bags, her interest was roused.

  “What game?” she asked, following Neelima into the kitchen.

  There, without answering the question, Neelima took a big tub and filled it with water.

  “Now we will start the game,” she announced. “Which fish do you want to own – male or female?”

  “Female.”

  Neelima poured the water from one of the carry bags into the tub. The fish slithered into the tub along with the water and started swimming with its newly found freedom. “This is your fish.”

  “How do you know this is a female one?” asked a puzzled Niharika.

  “I just know,” was the answer she got.

  Then Neelima emptied the other bag also. “This is mine – male fish.

  Now these two fish will produce children.”

  Niharika put a bewildered and confused face. “You know how children are produced?”

  “Yes stupid, I know many things you just don’t know,” Neelima said proudly. “It is with the union of male and female.”

  What was the union and how? Niharika was about to ask, but she stopped and looked keenly into the tub as the two fish – male and female – began to come closer. But the fish parted ways before coming close enough to make babies. The two little sisters were disappointed.

  “Wait!” said Neelima. “It will take some time for them to get accustomed to these waters.”

  After a few minutes, the two fish did come closer and the male one (as per big sister) began to bite the female one.

  “Neelima! Your fish is fighting with my fish,” cried Niharika.

  “No, they aren’t fighting. It’s the way they love.”

  “No Neelima, that stupid and gunda fish of yours will hurt my poor fish. See he is biting her.” A worried Niharika suddenly cupped her female fish with her two hands and ran towards the bathroom.

  “Niharika, what are you doing? You
are spoiling the game,” cried Neelima after her.

  “No, I will never let your stupid rowdy fish hurt my poor little thing,” Niharika said and carefully put her fish in a bucket full of water.

  Thus, the two sisters’ adventure with the two fish came to an end.

  The End