i ignored the stares and walked past the wooden benches on either side, to the front of the shop ..
'anna, tea .. strong-a .. sarkarai vendam' ..
the shop guy nodded his head ..
'sugar-a ma??' ('are u diabetic?')
'illa'
'pinne?' ('then why do u not want sugar?')
'tea la sugar pidikadhu'
the three customers of the shop along with the tea vendor stared at me like i was crazy ..
i took a tamil newspaper that seemed like it had seen better days (found out later that it was dated 2 months older) and sat on one side of the wooden bench that was unoccupied .. the three cutomers sitting on the other bench were still staring at me ..
a gal coming to a road side tea-shop in a village was a rarity in india .. esp, one in a thick long sleeved t-shirt with a hoodie on an extremely hot day was even rarer ..
the tea-anna gave me my glass cup of sugar-less tea and asked me if i wanted anything to eat with it .. when i declined with a nod of my head, he left me to go back to his position in front of the milk-boiler .. ignoring the stares, i sipped my bitter tea and scanned the two months old news of coimbatore .. someone killed his wife and her secret lover and surrendered at the police station .. s'one else crashed his expensive car into a motorcyclist and the motorcyclist died on the spot .. so he compnesates the dead guy's family with money .. i wondered if money could jus compensate everything like that .. seems it did, atleast in this case ..
there was a column where the author gives solutions to various beauty queries .. 'ladies section', it said .. and then there was this sports section in the last page of the newspaper where Railways team beat some bank team in volleyball .. so, they still played Volleyball .. it brought back memories of my childhoood when my uncle took us to these annual national level volleyball tournaments .. it alwayz started after 8 or 9 PM and went on till wee hours .. dnt remember why but i used to love those games .. and i used to make up random favourites rite before the games started and stuck to it loyally even if the team was losing .. i never knew any of the teams/members and i still dnt .. but they were gud memories, those days ..
i looked up from the paper to notice that the guys were still staring at me, even though some kinda conversation was going on .. one guy was short n stocky .. the other two seemed lanky and tall .. all of them were dark brown in color .. should have been in their late 40s, early 50's ...
seeing me look up in their direction, the shorty nodded at me and asked "ooruku pudusa?" (r u new around hre?)
"illa"
"how come i have never seen you arnd before .. r u visiting s'one in this village?"
"no"
seeming a li'l impatient with my one word answers that werent giving him any lead, he gave his comrades a look and asked the tea-anna, "how come i have never seen her in these parts bfr .. have u seen her before? whoz family is she visiting?"
tea-anna gives me this questioning look and nods his head at the Shorty ..
"my grandparents lived hre" - i tell in general looking at the flames heating the boiler ..
"apadiya .. yaaru?"
i tel my grandad's name and they nod their heads in recognition .. they tel the usual that everyone tels s'one they hardly know and hadnt seen in ages .. that i have grown up and they hardly recognize me ..
"amma appa soukyama?"
"hmm"
just then a round lady arnd 50's comes there with a question mark on her face .. Shorty's wife, seems ...
Shorty asks her if she recognizes me .. her question mark widens and she scrutinizes my face more closely ..
Mr.A's granddaughter, Shorty tels ... she exclaims at the top of her voice on how much i have grown up and how different i look now ..
probably she remembers me in my shorts, tshirt and bata chappals with hair cropped short .. the way i looked when i was 10 or 11 .. i didnt go back there to that village after that much .. i used to not like going there as a kid ..
my grandparents were extremely fond of me .. another thing in life that i didnt realize i should have cherished until it was a li'l too late .. another regret that i have to live with, for the rest of my life .. i had my share of the hearts that i broke .. jus like i had my share of my heart getting broken ..

"so u came hre alone?" - Shorty's wife widens the question mark on her face ..
i nod ..
"why? how long are you here? will u be staying at ur granpa's place?"
my tea glass is empty .. i get up to leave ..
"yes .. i will be staying here for some time ... will c u arnd"
i hear them chattering on, as i walk away .. i know i will be the source of gossip in the tiny village for weeks to come ..

 - To be continued ..