"Sweet bananas... sweet bananas...only forty rupai darjan! Only forty rupai darjan!"
I shoved the bunch towards his face, not touching, just close enough to let him smell.
"Hey! Watch it"
He snapped.
I moved on with the crowd, ignoring him.
"Ayeeeee! You f# #**re"
I melted back into the street, just another yell in the noise.
Ramu didn't care. Ramu had seen men like that. Suit, tie, bag in hand. Not wealthy enough to buy their own car, but enough to dust their shirts as if Ramu had spat on it.
I skimmed through the crowd my slippers sprinkling mire to the back of my bare legs.
The smell of wet earth, with my ripe bananas with the tang of fried snacks was filling the street, with a unique scent of warmth.
I scanned the crowd,
looking for people who would most likely buy my bananas.
Group of office workers crowded around chaiwala,a coil of boiling steam rising from his battered kettle.
Nope.
School kids near the vada pav vendor.
Nope.
A Duo of mother and her child.
Hey Gods, Ramu got a customer.
I moved towards them.
HONK....HONK
Stubborn auto-rickshaw.
I moved aside,
let the rickshaw squeeze through the narrow space of the crowded alley.
"Sweet bananas... Sweet bananas...Only 40 Rupai dajan...only 40 Rupai Dajan"
I held out the bunch out,
let the fruit swing in front of girls face,
but from afar.
She tugged at her mother sleeve.
Her mother looked at the bananas then scanned me,
her eyes like she smelled garbage.
She whispered something to the girl.
The child locked her eyes on the bananas.
A gentle tug from her mother and she kept walking.
"Hey lad!"
I pulled a banana from the bunch and held it out.
She snatched it, then glanced at her mother.
The woman sighed, drew a ₹5 coin, held it up between two fingers.
I pushed her hand away.
Do Ramu looks like a beggar to you?
"Here. Now clean your hand."
And I was already on my way.
An old man, folded umbrella in one hand, a nylon woven grocery bag in other. I drew a
breath...and yelled towards him.
"Sweet bananas... Sweet bananas...Only 40 Rupai dajan...only 40 Rupai Dajan"
That got his attention.
He closed the distance, Hand mid motion to pull banana close to him.
"These are raw, give me 20 rupee per dozen"
I scanned him, crisply ironed kurta pajama,neatly combed, oiled, silver hair, polished shoes.
Ramu knew these kind of old hags. They didn't want bananas. Gods couldn't even eat them. They just wanted authority. To step on someone weaker.
"They cost me Thirty-five saab"
"Thirty rupees per dozen, not a rupee single more"
"Thik hai(okay) saab.How many darjan?"
"Half a dozen ,and give it from there"
He pointed at the ones on the far upper left of the bunch.
"Just Half?"
He didn't reply, so I handed him the bananas. He put them in the bag, then handed me a twenty rupai note.
Then glared.
"I don't have chillar(change) saab"
"Then add three more"
I handed him three more.
Ramu was illiterate, but Ramu can tell that two bananas were enough for five rupai.
He smirked, then moved his way.
I spotted three young lads jogging toward me in gym attire.
"Sweet bananas... Sweet bananas... Only forty rupai darjan! Only forty rupai darjan!"
"One... hfoo... hfooo... dozen," one of them puffed, stepping close, chest heaving.
I handed him the bananas. He grabbed them, passed me two twenties, and kept moving.
I blinked. Then smiled.
Ramu liked these kind of people.
Not because of money.
Not really. Ramu liked them because, for once, someone saw Ramu's price...
and didn't treat it as a challenge.
A droplet of water fell on my hand. I looked up.piter pater...piter...pater...
and it Starts to rain.
I moved towards the tea stall shed.
People started running towards nearby sheds, stalls and roofs.
Within seconds the slight drizzle turned into a pour.
The already humid atmosphere turned cold, provoking a primal feeling within.
I glanced towards the crowd around the chaiwalah,
then at the board above the wall.
Ten rupai per cup.
I put my hand in the pocket, sensed the amount.
Ramu wanted chai too.
But if Ramu spent ten rupai over it, how will Ramu's little princess will get her new bag?
I put the beedee
(very cheap cigarette) in my mouth, pulled out match stick and rubbed it at the side of the matchbox.
It didn't burn, I hit it again,
it broke.
I tried with another stick,
no ignition, maybe it got wet.
Someone nudged me and brought a lighter close to my face. I let him light it up, then looked down at my helper.
A kid.
A KID?
A boy, hardly fourteen, cigarette in one hand, other shoving lighter in his pocket.
He took a deep sip, let the warmth in, then released the smoke.
As if he was a professional smoker.
"Aren't you too old for this kind of stuff lad?"
I asked sarcastically while taking a sip.
"Yeah, I am old enough"
He let out a puff of smoke with that.
"Haan...Haan"
I half heartedly agreed.
Putting the bunch to the side, easing the strain in the shoulder.
Even within the tight space of shed, people had made their own groups, chatting, laughing, bickering, while sipping tea and cigarettes, maintaining a distance from us.
"This Rain always comes at this time "
He takes another puff, and lazily motioned toward the chaiwala,
"Always Helping him in his business"
"What are you? A local weather guide?"
"Nah Just around here long enough"
Ramu didn't feel right,
watching a kid puff away like that.
Barely older than Ramu's princess.
I glanced at the old Camera Dangling from his neck.
"What's with this? You click pictures like one of those Instagram kids?"
"I click the moments people may forget."
He paused
"Sometimes people even forget, who they were."
"Your body isn't matching your age, don't you have homework to do?"
I teased.
"Body doesn't necessarily have to match it's age,
besides my homework is to repay the people I owed"
He fumbled in his lower pocket, pulled out something, made a fist around it and pushed it towards my hand.
I subconsciously took it, my eyes widened.
Ramu had never seen so many five hundred notes in his entire life this closely.
I shoved the notes in his hand.
He tried to resist but I put them back in his pocket.
"Why? I don't even know you kid?"
He looked at me as if he owed me his life.
"You gave me something once.....small,
but something that I needed the most, I am just trying to evening the score"
He didn't break eye contact, not even for a blink.
He looked at the bananas, then checked the time.
Turned, and started crossing the street.
I watched him calmly crossing the street.
He stopped in front of the lottery ticket stall.
Picked one out without even glancing twice.
Then turned and came back, still walking like he'd rehearsed the route.
"Here, take this then"
He handed me the ticket.
Ramu stared at the ticket.
Ramu wasn't a beggar.
Ramu couldn't take something for free, not from a child.
"Look kid... "
"Okay...okay I knew you won't take something for free"
He pointed at the bunch of bananas.
"I'll take the smaller ones. Not too ripe. The fourth bunch from the left."
.
.
.
.
"How'd you know I keep the small bananas there?"
He just smiled.
"Fourth bunch from the left. Not too ripe."
Then added, almost bored:
"You always choose that one."
BEEP BEEP BEEP
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
I looked at the source of sound,
his hand watch.
He stared at the watch for few seconds,
then glanced at the crowded entrance area of the market.
Then threw the ticket at me.
I lunged for it,
I caught it before it could fall in the puddle.
I looked up, the kid had already blended into the crowd opposite side of the entrance.
I looked at the lottery ticket in my hand,
then at the extinguished smokeless beedee in the puddle.
Ramu didn't have words to process what actually happened.
But maybe...just maybe, Gods had granted him their Gratitude.
..................
I scratched the silver foil with my thumbnail,
flakes sticking to my skin like dandruff.
The numbers peeled themselves open:
7 4 2 9 9.
I blinked once.
Again.
The kiosk boy had already turned away,
chewing his pen.
"Hey."
I held the ticket out, arm stiff. "Check this."
He took it lazily,
scanned it, paused.
"Where did you get this?"
His voice cracked like his throat dried up.
I pointed back toward the street.The crowd had swallowed the kid.
The boy checked again.
Then checked the poster behind him.
Then said, louder:
"This is a winner."
Someone nearby turned.
Then another.
The word fluttered between mouths:
winner, winner, THAT guy?
A woman gasped.
The chaiwala leaned in.
I could already feel the air thickening.
The kiosk boy's eyes narrowed.
"Where'd you steal it from?"
I laughed, small. "I told you.."
"People like YOU can't buy a five hundred rupee ticket,"
he snapped.
"Someone gave it to you? Which rich idiot? Or
did you swap it?"
Ramu can see the story already writing itself in their heads. A thief, a liar, pretending to be lucky.
I held the ticket tighter. People were stepping closer. Too close.
The boy pointed at me, louder now, theatrical:
"He's a fraud! Someone stop him.."
"He's a fraud! Someone stop him!" the kiosk boy shouted.
The murmurs turned sharp.
"Hey, stop!"
A voice broke through.
"I SAID STOP! I gave him the ticket!"
It was the kid.
"And how'd you get a lottery ticket in the first place, huh?" someone yelled.
"This kid's with him.I saw them talking. They're partners."
"I'm not a thief," I said, voice cracking. "Neither is that kid."
"Tell that after your special dose," someone growled, stepping forward with a stick. Three more followed.
I glanced at the kid he was frowning,
still calm,muttering something under his breath his camera in his hand now.
Ramu felt it all clench. Ramu's throat. Ramu's lungs.
This feeling...Ramu had felt it before...
The people. The outrage.
The boiling point of their disgust that someone like Ramu might win.
They would rather believe Ramu as a thief than lucky.
And Ramu HATED them for THAT.
"Somehow it always finds a way to disappoint me"
The kid raised the old camera to his face and clicked.
CLICK!
The click echoed in my skull. Too loud. Too sharp.
Like memory snapping its fingers.
_______________________________________________
"Sweet bananas...sweet bananas...only forty rupai dajan...only forty Rupai Dajan"
I shoved the bunch towards his face, not touching, just close enough to let him smell.
"Hey! Watch it"
He snapped. I moved on with the crowd, ignoring him.
"Ayeeeee! You f#c#in# ###re"
I melted back into the street, just another yell in the noise.
Ramu didn't care....