Sail, drink and eat

There is a strange sense of motion while sailing on a beautiful summer evening with the sun on you, a brisk breeze that keeps changing its direction at whim because of the geographical contours of the surroundings and on a 6 foot boat with people you have met for the first time. Suddenly the skipper shouts alright we are tacking in 3...2...1...and the people start working the ropes winding it around and then winching it to get the head sail properly positioned. It takes some effort especially when the strong wind keels the boat almost at a 40 degree angle and you need to winch with all your strength to keep the boat going. You take a breather only to hear the skipper call out in 5 minutes that we are getting ready for another tack and it is time to unwind the rope on your end. You can see both, the abstract and the logic if you look around and consider the sailing of the boat. Its almost like a meeting point of the believer and the infidel.

Its an isolated telephone booth. There is a sharp chill in the air as he enters the telephone booth. The phone rings and gayathri mantra blares out of the other line. He chuckles to himself and wonders again what made his dad put that as the dial tone. His mother answers the phone and as they are talking he cannot help but wonder sometimes at the inanities his mother spouts so often. As he listens, he hears a loud set of voices and sees a group of 4 girls walking down the road noisily towards the telephone booth. They are heavily intoxicated and suddenly he sees them all around the telephone booth starting to bang against the glass for no particular reason. They start beating against the glass in a rhythm and he looks at them with an almost bored look. One of the girls screams "Gaawwd!! I am so f$#%ing horny" and they burst into a cackle of laughter, split up and walk away.

What is it about pleasant surprises? They are like the sudden cool breeze on a hot and humid day. He gets up one morning and leaves for work just as everyday. The train journey is uneventful, he gets into work and wishes his colleagues the morning pleasantries and suddenly finds himself at his desk with an aluminum foil with a note by its side. He picks the note up and reads it- "Something for you to eat!!" He opens the foil to find a paratha in it. He looks at it, walks upto her desk and bursts out laughing.

One morning...

Its an unusually warm day. He has been up late the previous night watching a murder thriller but manages to drag himself out of bed and makes his way to the tennis courts. As the sun beats down on the players, he feels good to be able to get back to playing tennis after a 4 week hiatus caused by an injury. He finishes his coaching session and starts to walk back home. About 300 metres in his journey and he hears someone call him. He turns around to see an old man in his fifties hailing him 'good morning' and strikes a conversation with him. The old man asks him if he works here and he replies in the affirmative. Then the old man asks him if he is looking for an apartment as he has a place to let and he replies in the negative saying that if someone he knows wants it, he would direct him to the old man. The old man then asks him if he is Indian and when he says yes, the old man says Indian boys are very nice. They continue walking. The old man then asks him if he stays with someone and he says that he stays alone and the old man says that he stays alone too.

The old man suddenly stops and asks him if he wanted to go to his place and have a drink with him with a smile on his face bordering on the leering. The young man is taken aback for a moment because the old man's face has suddenly changed into something he had not seen before, he politely declines and walks away.