Tender Thursday
I feel like writing something today, but nothing very serious or ‘constructed’. I don’t much care for putting up unstructured posts on my blog. But at the same time, I don’t want to feel hostage to some ‘bright idea’. So, I shall just do as I please for now, because it’s my blog! 🙂
It’s bright and sunny. My hair seems to be on fire and I would see black polka dots on practically everything around me if not for my Polo Club glares. I decide to have some tender coconut water from the bhaiyya on the corner . It does mean a walk from office in the heat to the corner but I love the water and the walk helps. The bhaiyya knows exactly what I want, I only had to tell him once. I usually have the pani and thicker-than-patli-malai variety. I have grown up around two bountiful coconut trees and I love to crunch on the white tender flesh. If at home, I have little nuggets of jaggery with the it.
Mmmm…!
I finish the water and watch as the malai gets freed from its shell by a deft scrap with a curved chopper. He gives me a coconut halve with the malai slices heaped on top of one another. It is quite a halve-full.
As I walk back, I look up to see a blue cloudless blue sky. That somehow manages to fill me up. I don’t seem to have the appetite to finish all that malai I have so greedily taken. I think I will take it along and coax my friends to finish it. I know I will hear that friendly sermon about being greedy, once more.
Right then who should amble along from behind me but an elephant! I see the poor animal fanning himself desperately with the big ears. So much real estate to feel the heat on. I pause to let the grand animal pass and more importantly to give him a spot in the shade. When he comes nearer, he slows his walk. As if he’d read my mind. He proffers his trunk and I let the entire contents from my hands be taken. No questions asked, no sermons given. The trunk feels soft to touch and it rests for a bit on my palm..as if to say thanks.
My malai meets a fateful end and I have a very happy day for I have made this Jumbo happy.
