Don't Try This At Home

At first, they meet with much glee
Big, long, tight, teary hugs
Smiles wide enough to devour a banana
Horizontally

Then
They reminisce
Of times long gone
when 10 paise
Meant More
Than your per minute local calling rates*
(*Between 11pm and 8am
After paying 22 bucks a month)

Of town fairs
With giant wheels
That touched the moon
Faster than you could say
Chandrayaan

Then a tiny bone tumbles out
They shadowbox over a water bottle
That was never returned
Quite the same way as it was borrowed

‘I never took yours,
I had my own blue one’
Says the first
‘That’s the one I am talking about’
Retorts the other
As the blue bottle
rolls down endlessly
Snowballing into a planetoid
Of under-rug-swept memories

‘Let’s not fight today
For this a day of happiness and sharing’
Says one of them
Deflating the big blimp of badbad things

One by one they hand each other presents
Carefully wrapped,
Brutally opened
Briefly appreciated
Swiftly critiqued

‘The fake sugar in these sugar free sweets
Is way too fake’ moans the diabetic one
‘You always get me clothes a size too small’
says another, solemnly swearing that she
can go back to birth-weight at will
And of course the classic-
‘That’s it? I spent more on fuel than that!’

‘Well its not the gift that matters
Its the thought’ says another one,
Bargain-bin t shirt in hand
‘I guess you’re right’
the others mutter

With a smile as sweet as aspartame

About these ads