Does Iced Coffee Sound Good?

So, if were having coffee, I would keep it short this weekend, as I didn’t have a great start to this week that’s going by. I am running far behind my schedule, as I was struggling with drawing certain scenes for my graphic narrative project. I have been trying to make up for that over the weekend so that on Monday I have lesser backlog to clear. Hopefully I can send out the complete draft to my guide soon.

Anyway, after all this explanation I would ask you if iced coffee sounds good, because I am having that. And if you’re abstaining from coffee, I could offer you some fresh juice – a blend of oranges and grapes would be delicious, if you please or would you like some Lemonade instead? OR if you don’t mind some extra calories, I could also make you a refreshing tall glass of Lassi – and that my friends, will be a treat to your taste-buds. And if you’re wondering why I am not offering tea or a hot cup of coffee, it’s because it’s unbearably hot here.

And then, I would ask you, “How’s summer treating you?” And if you said, “Oh I live in the Southern Hemisphere! It’s winter out here…” I would spasmodically interrupt and say “Can we trade lives?” And then, I would calm down and let you speak. 

Amla and the Little Girl

It was a quiet afternoon, typical of North-Indian and Pakistani summer at peak, when people lived behind closed doors lest their children run out to play and fall prey to the evil howling winds that come travelling all the way from the deserts of southern Balochistan, Cholistan, and Rajasthan.

And it wasn’t more than mere eight years since economic liberalisation was initiated in 1991. So the Indian middle class at large had not grown accustomed to the air-conditioners, and not everyone had evaporative coolers either. Since those are also called swamp coolers, but the malarial-swamp that the North-Bihar already was, I guess people didn’t want more swamps to breed mosquitoes in! So they settled for fans instead. Needles to mention, these afternoons were laid-back. There were Usha-Lexus fans hovering over most heads, beside the halo of mosquitoes that would grace them in evenings spent outdoors. And these fans relentlessly moved the air in the room, sometimes even creaking as if humming a lullaby, putting people to sleep. And having spent most of the morning, rather first half of the day doing household chores, the women really treasured their siestas; so much so that they would even coax their young children into sleeping, keeping an arm around them, making sure they are in her clutches, else she might need to look after them. Restless with energy, the clever kids would close their eyes in no time, and would quietly sneak away whilst the mother they lay fast asleep.

(Excuse the repeated mention of mosquitoes. One hates them but one just cannot ignore them. Especially when it was around the same time that an uncredited piece of poetry called ‘Machhar Chalisa’ – a forty line ode to the mosquitoes, found a place in the vernacular newspapers, no kidding!)

But this little girl, obediently lay on her back staring at the fan as it moved with a stirring sound, wondering if she had those blades affixed her back would she be able soar in the sky, much like the choppers she would see often. And then the poster of some exotic place, on the wall across caught her fancy. Gazing at the waterfall in some forest, she fantasised going down that path every day to fetch water from her little cottage near the woods; typical of the fairy tales she had heard, since she hadn’t yet begun reading more than probably three letter words.