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City lights
prose [ ]
true story

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by [thaks ]

2003-12-18  |     | 




Sati banged open the door and rushed into the kitchen, nearly tripping on her long evening dress and her high heeled sandals. She flung open the refrigerator and scanned it for remains of the mornings meal. Seeing none, she cursed the maid under her breath and headed for the store room to see what there was that she could cook. She finally decided to use the morning chapattis and make curry to go with it. But first she rushed upstairs to change out of her evening clothes into a worn saree and house slippers. It must have been nine pm then. As she cut the vegetables, she thought about Khaled. That evening Khaled had taken her out on her first date.

Sati met khaled in barista when she went to get herself a chocolate doughnut after a tiring day of shopping. Khaled had come and sat beside her to have his capucchino. Khaled was a tall man with a masculine figure, and had big dark eyes with a strange glow. She thought that she would never have gone and sat next to him if he were sitting along on a table, he had something in his eyes that gave her that feeling. In this course of a coffee, Khaled had narrated the story about his life. Khaled's mother was a widow and had got him married to her sisters daughter, Farida. Farida a beautiful girl had a lot of boyfriends, and one day one of them came to their house and murdered her, leaving poor Khaled and his wailing mother in a depression.Khaled had said that he loved Farida and that Sati reminded him of her. He had said that her eyes had the same warmth and the same brightness as Farida's had once bore. Sati, feeling terribly sympathetic towards Khaled invited him home for dinner, remembering that her husband would be gone for a conference and wouldnt return till late.
After this Sati had started meeting Khaled everyday for coffee and doughnut at barista. She had seen in him everything that she had not seen in her husband. He was humorous,witty,charming and dedicated to his purpose(which Sati never really understood)He had allured her with his charm, amenity and poise. And he had never ever been late to meet her, he was always the first one there, right on time.
They started dating a week after their first meeting, when Khaled had said that he loved her.
"Owch", she screamed "how careless of me".
The blood oozed out of her finger, and she threw the knife down and put her hand under the cool running water from the sink. She put the pan onto the stove and lit it. She carefully opened the bottle of oil and poured some into the pan.

Sati's husband was a corporate bum. She had never completely understood what he was doing exactly. He was the owner of a copper mining project which right now was undergoing a serious breakdown. He had tried to explain to her that some global and local resistance had been made for large-scale mining projects, like his, all around the world, for being funded by international financial institutions. But she was unable to understand it and took it as an explanation for why he would be late for dinner everyday.

But what she knew right now was that he would be home soon and wonder why the dinner wasnt on the table as always. She bent over to pick up the cut vegetables and the pan of hot oil slipped from its base and fell near her, burning her arm. She screamed out loud and the tears came into her eyes as she picked up the upturned pan and put it back on the stove. After spraying her burn with ice cold water, she covered it with her saree and hurried up with the vegetables.
In the next half an hour the table was set for the dinner and Sati replaced the two red roses in the vase with two fresh ones. It was ten pm now. She heard the front door open just then. Her husband stood at the door and stared at her. He smiled as he took of his coat and loosened his tie. But the smile lived a short while because soon she could see on his face, the worries and the scars of a long working day. He announced that he wouldnt be having dinner and went straight up to the room for a shower. Sati stood there frozen, still staring at the door where he had entered from. Hot tears gathered in her eyes now. She kept them from spilling out and wiped them off with the corner of her sarree. She didnt feel any hatred or contempt for him. She merely felt anger and defeat.

At about eleven pm, as she lay in bed, she stared at the ceiling, no thoughts had crossed her head. She hadnt said a single word to her husband. Had he found out about her secret lover? Was there nothing more that he felt for her? Her instinct wanted her to get up from there and go see Khaled. But would she give up her everything for this one man? She only knew him for a little more than a week now. All kinds of thoughts crossed her mind. Her mind gave way, she didnt know what to do and she felt an incapability to think. She heard the rain outside the window. She got up from her bed and stood watching the rain drop the height and fall on the streets below. Some of the drops shone bright yellow, from the light of a nearby road lamp. There werent many cars on the street below. She had made up her mind now. She grabbed a few pieces of clothing, threw them in an upright, and in five minutes she was on the street hailing a taxi cab.

She had never seen Khaled's house before, but she knew where it was. From Colaba they drove deep into the suburbs of Mumbai. It was cold and the rain from the window in the front of the car hit her face sometimes. Through her tears, she saw the lights of the city stream by as if merged in a chain of light. It rained harder than it had done the day before. The journey was an everlasting one. They left behind them the high end buildings with their mirror finishing to see cloth houses in the by lanes.
When they reached Sardar GV street, in Dombilvili it was half past midnight.

Sati got out of the taxi, paid the man and ran towards an old rundown looking house, covering herself with the end of her saree. She looked down the street to see if any of the lights were still on, but none were. On entering the building, she went up the flight of steps to the first floor. Stains of pan coloured the bare walls of the corridors and series of pigeon shit lined the balcony ledge. The staircase railing was held up by rusted pieces of metal which creaked as she took their support. She looked for his house no. and found it written on a rusted piece of metal, hanging half nailed into the wall on top of a big wooden door. Under the door, the room lights were on. Suddenly she thought she heard a moan, but she wasnt too sure. She stopped, waited and listened. "Silly me", she thought. He had lived alone how can there be anyone there with him? And she gathered the courage to ring the bell.

In a couple of seconds she was through the door. On the floor near her feet lay a tiny woman, frail and torn. Her hand, neck and back bore marks of the whip. She was obviously beaten, or being beaten. Khaled stood appaled at the door, with a belt in his hand. Sati stared at him for a while. And then at the poor woman on the floor...Farida. She bent down, closed her eyes and held her hand. Tears from her eyes fell onto the girls cheek. Her bleeding eyes closed, and her hand went numb in Sati's. She pressed it tightly and held it there for a while.
Sati walked out of that door slowly, not hearing what Khaled was saying, not listening to what her heart said, not thinking about anything. She walked into the rain, unarmed completely. Everything around her blurred as the water fell in her eyes and on her face. She knelt in the waters, closed her eyes and prayed. Prayed for Farida, and her husband and Khaled.


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