Strangers

PART I

The day was hot and sunny and he was very thirsty when he arrived at the ticket counter. And there she was, sitting comfortably under the fan. When he asked for a cup of water she pointed him to the water filter at the far corner of the room. He looked over there but saw no cup, and he made it an excuse and she nonchalantly got up and poured out a cup for him and asked, “What can I do for you?”

He took the cup from her hand and gulped it down and handed the cup back to her, asking for more and said, “I have to go to Guwahati tonight and I wonder if I could get a seat.”

“I am sorry sir, the coach is already full tonight, may be you could try other travel companies.”

She was in her late twenties, looking graceful and beautiful and she was wearing a loose blouse and a skirt. As she stood up to pour him more water, he could see her whole body and was surely distracted by her figure.

“That’s exactly what I have been told three or four times today, and I was directed to come to you. Is there no way you could fit me even in the cabin?”

“I don’t think so sir. I have already issued five extras for that and the driver and conductor would have no more passengers inside the cabin.”

Just then a porter came in and said, “There’s a band at Hnahthial because they are not happy with the government for not delivering their promise to them. I think you will have to cancel the bus to Lunglei tonight.”

“Do you mean a Bandh?”

“Yeah, a band.”

“Why did I not read about that in the paper this morning. And why was I not told this long before?” she thought to herself but the manager had not got back yet so she could not really scold the porter who volunteered the message to her. The porter left and the ceiling fans were spinning furiously as if trying to propel the whole building to the sky. The room was deserted except for another porter who was dozing off at the corner. There were some posters on the wall with something about how incredible India was. The room was swept clean but there was a half-smoked cigarette sticking out of the ashtray at the centre of the wooden table.

“Excuse me miss. Everything has been a failure for me today. I applied for a passport three months ago but I could not get it even today. They asked me to come back week after week. I have been invited to go to the States on a very urgent and important business and today I finally decided to go to Guwahati to go to the Regional Passport Office myself. But I have been told of the unavailability of seats counter after counter. Are you sure there is no way I could somehow get on the bus?”

“I am very sorry for your trouble sir. I wish I could help you now, but you will have to come back tomorrow.”

“Are you really sorry for me?”

“Yes I am.”

“Can I request one simple thing from you?”

“Yes you may.”

“Since there’s no other customer here, can we go downstairs and spend just one hour alone together. I will pay you five hundred.”

The girl was taken aback at such a direct approach and was blushing. And she stuttered a little when she spoke to him in anger.

“Sir, please don’t speak to me like that. I am not that kind of girl. Who do you think you are?”

“800?”

“I am not interested in it. Just leave me alone!”

“1,000? Just an hour and we’ll do nothing.”

“So, just because you are going to the States you think you can approach a girl like that? And you think I am not going to find out about someone who has been invited to the States from the local newspaper? I am going to expose you and you are going to be sorry for this!”

She was shaking a little when she vented her anger at him.

“Please calm down and reconsider. I don’t mean to offend you at all. I just want to spend a little time with you. I promise we won't do anything.”

“Please leave before I call the manager.”

She seemed very angry and he turned around and saw a young man entering the ticket counter and then he left the ticket counter slowly. He could feel her angry eyes burning the back of his neck and he smiled at himself for the effect.

As she got calmer she thought of what he said and she found the whole thing somewhat amusing. “That man. That strange man…what…1,000 for nothing? Doing nothing?" she smiled at the absurdity. She had done a lot of nothing with someone for nothing. And there was serious money to be made for nothing and then it was nothing.

He had checked the building thoroughly before he entered the lounge and he knew that there was no downstairs to go to but cliffs. And the fact of the matter was that he was not invited to go to the States, and he did not even need a passport. All he needed was a ticket to Guwahati, not the girl. He has a lovely wife whom he loves. And he could never afford to throw away even a hundred rupees for nothing. He made sure of that- Mr. Chawngthianga has always been very frugal all his life!

PART II

The day was hot because of the scorching sun. The winter had been very long and before Spring actually begun it was already summer and there were not a lot of people on the street because of the heat. A customer left his cigarette burning in the ashtray but the room was swept clean other than that. There were some Incredible India! posters on the wall, and she readied herself to continue her M&B under the fan. Two of the ceiling fans at the lounge area were spinning at top speed and she turned off one of them. Just then a porter came in and asked her where to keep the parcels and she told her to leave them near the cloakroom. He said to her as he was leaving, “There’s a band at Hnahthial because they are not happy with the government for not delivering their promise to them. I think you will have to cancel the bus to Lunglei tonight.”

“Do you mean a Bandh?”

“Yeah, a band.”

She was wondering why the manager did not mention it before he left for home and she stopped herself from venting her frustration at the porter who volunteered the message to her. She put down her book when she saw a young man with a spiky hair approaching the booking counter.The young man had a funny Southern twang and she had seen the likes of him before. He had an air of confidence and she could make out that she had been out of the state for a year or so in the way he behaved and talked.

“May I help you?”

“I really need a ticket to Shillong tonight. If I don’t go tonight I am going to be late for my admission. Please help me get a ticket.”

“I am truly sorry for your trouble but we are already full for tonight. It might be better for you to go to other companies as soon as possible.”

He was wearing a mobile phone on his neck and it was not possible not to recognize that he had one, since he kept on pressing the keys all the time. He appeared to be dialing someone but she could see that he was not dialing anyone at all but pretended to talk on the phone without even taking his leave and he shouted, “Helloooo, Andy, can you hear me? Hellooo?”

And he continued the act to impress her as he said in English, “Please tell Professor Lyngdoh that I will be late for the classes for a few days because I cannot buy a ticket at all. It’s so frustrating, man! Please ask him to forgive me. Thank you Andy. I’ll see you real soon. Real soon, Man!”

She was back to her book when he got back to her, and it started to annoy her like hell.

“Miss, may I ask you one thing?”

“Yes, you may.”

“Are you the one I saw on the Demand Channel last night? Yes, I bet you are the one who sang Myterious Love, Naw?”

“I think you are confusing me with someone else. I am not the one.”

“As if…I am sure you are the one, Naw?”

“No, I am not the one. No.”

He was beginning to see the futility of talking to her as he obviously had not make any great impression on her. His was to miss the obvious things most of the time anyway.

“Can I offer you kwai?”

"Excuse me?"

“Oh, I am so used to saying kwai that I don’t realise I am in Aizawl. I mean do you eat kuhva, can I offer you one?”

“No thanks. I don’t eat betel nuts.”

“Have you ever been to Shillong?”

“No, I have not been there. You won’t believe it, I have not even been to Silchar!”

“It’s a really wonderful place. Very near from here, you should definitely go there one day. And if you ever come I can take you wherever you want to go. I will leave you my phone number.”

“Thanks for your kind offer, but I don’t think I’d go there anytime soon. A pity though.”

“So, you have not been to Silchar? Well, there’s nothing much there anyway. Shillong’s the place to be. That’s where it’s at! Have you been to Champhai?”

“Oh yeah, that’s where my family’s from. We moved here only eight years ago. But we go there once every other year for Christmas and have a family reunion of sorts, with all the cousins and relatives.”

“I see. I have never been there, and I’d really like to go there one day. Anyway, if you ever manage to get to Shillong please look for Michael C. Chhunkiauva, most people would know the name.”

“For sure. I have been meaning to go there, especially since my nieces and nephew are in a boarding school and they always tell me of how beautiful it is there. And my sister left yesterday to be with them for a week and she asked me to fill in for her job here. But I have been too busy, and besides I usually fly direct to Delhi and to stop over at Shillong does not really work out for me.”

Just then a mobile phone rang, and she excused herself as she brought out a mobile phone from her handbag which has a camera of 2.5 megapixels and it quietened him and made him want to hide the one he was wearing in his neck. He left without saying a word.

PART III

The day was very sunny and it was becoming hotter by the day. The phone rang and I put down a copy of Reader’s Digest when I realized that she was not planning to answer the phone. It was him alright. There was no mistaking the fact that he was after something. He has been a friend for a long time, but sometimes because of his eccentricities and his unusual views Jane had some reservation about associating with him too much in public at least.

So I picked him up and drove him all the way to Thuampui even though I had to miss a home cooked lunch as I needed to go back to the office as early as possible.

The travel agency was not so busy during that time of the day and it wore a deserted look except for a young man with a baggy pants, with a cell phone dangling from his neck who was leaving the counter as we entered, and a porter who was dozing off peacefully at one corner of the room, and I kind of envied him for his ability to have a nap in such a place and in such a condition. There was a cigarette butt in the ashtray on the coffee table but the room was quite clean other than that. There were some Incredible India! posters on the wall.

The clerk at the booking counter looked twentyish and she was on her mobile phone. The two ceiling fans were spinning furiously at top speed but I still could hear her voice through the noisy spinning fans.

“How could you withstand all these things day after day?!” she shouted on the phone with a somewhat neutral tone yet with a little bit of excitement.

“…oh yeah, you are married after all. But still then, I would not be able to stand all these impossible people on a day to day basis…” she burst out laughing and she looked up to them who were waiting eagerly to talk to her.

“Come back soon. I don’t think I could handle all these innuendoes too much longer. Give my love to the kids, I’ve got to go. Bye!”

Just then a porter came in and asked her if he should wait for the manager for his payment. She said she would pay him now and asked him how much it was. She took out a fifty rupee note and asked him if he had a ten rupee note. The porter gave her one and she asked her to keep the parcels near the cloakroom and the porter said to her as he was leaving, “There’s a band at Hnahthial because they are not happy with the government for not delivering their promise to them. I think you will have to cancel the bus to Lunglei tonight.”

“Do you mean a Bandh?”

“Yeah, a band.”

And she wondered why the manager had not mentioned that one before and she made a mental note to ask him as soon as he got back after realizing that it was no use to express her anger at the porter who volunteered the message to her.

It was a wonderful view from the window. What people call the Chite River did not look like a river at all but a dying stream instead and I was wondering to myself what would happen to it in a few more years since all the waste of the city on a hill top has nowhere to go as people don’t really care about disposing their waste in a proper manner at a proper place. The picture of the Elora caves on the wall reminded me of the almost disastrous college excursion almost eleven years ago. However, my train of thought was disturbed by my good friend as he nudged me towards the booking counter.

After the porter had left she looked at us, not sure of what to expect and then said finally, “What can I do for you?”

“Where is Zawni today?” I asked her casually.

“She’s in Shillong to be with her kids, and I am filling in for her today. So you know each other then?”

“Yes, she was a college classmate. So, who would you be then?”

“I would be her sister at your service.”

“I made a reservation for one seat for today under the name of Mr. Vaninmawia, please can you check it for us?”

“Vaninmawia, Vaninmawia,” she mumbled to herself as she checked a long list of names for the day’s passengers. Mawia watched her intently and he decided that her mouth was too big, but no, if it were smaller than that she would not be as beautiful as she looked to him then. However, he was not happy with her size; she’s a bit too small!

“Oh yeah, too small? Why do you want her to be bigger than she is now?” he rebuked himself and he had no more doubt that she was a beautiful girl. He laughed with a childish delight as he whispered to me of all his opinion about her. Indeed she looked beautiful and there was a freshness about her which was missing in most of the girls he knew. Most of them were too uptight and too worried about not getting married or getting married but poor. But she was fresh and she was beautiful. He did not want to admit to himself that he wanted to use one word to describe her and yet he did. Yes, in a word she was sexy.

“Could it be V.Mawia of Laipuitlang?” she asked to make sure.

And we said in unison, “That’s the one!”

She smiled and brought out the receipt book and started to fill in for us.

There was a short pause in conversation but it was not long at all; can never be when you have a man like V. Mawia with you for company. Well, this is the man who had seen it all and done it all. He begun to talk about his brush with various celebrities but he never really knew them personally. He was just boasting about them infront of the girl and I could see through his scheme. I remembered at that instant the taxi driver who preached to me of how to best do my job. He knew so much that there was hardly a thing I could add to make his speech any better than it already was. And I was supposed to be the expert in it! This world is full of amazing people really.

There are a lot of people who could preach about corruption and I have read a lot of stuffs in the newspapers about how to best run the state, and how to best be rid of corruption and corrupt officials. But nothing’s happening anyway.

When the girl was ready with the ticket he paid her and I thought we were going to walk away from there but it was not to be. He started asking her the things which must be asked by a man to a sexy girl who was there to be asked things. She was a booking clerk after all. Well, she might not be a permanent one but she was one at least for the day, a public servant at his disposal. He could not get away from such an opportunity which was so aptly presented to him at such a time. And then the questions.

“Are you married?”

“No sir, I am not!” she looked shocked and annoyed.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

She blushed and decided not to answer him and thought to herself, “Not again, please!”

“So, where are you from anyway?”

“Tuikual.”

“Oh, Tuikual? Whereabout in Tuikual? How long have you been there? Were you born there?”

“We came from Champhai about ten years ago.”

“Do you know Pu Kawlthuama, the businessman at Kahrawt Veng?”

“Yes I know him and his family. They are very good family friends. Why do you ask?”

“I know someone who lives next to them? Well, she is my second cousin actually.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Lawmkungi, the wife of Lianhlira. Do you happen to know them?”

“That’s Nu Lawmkungi, my mother’s first cousin.”

“Are you serious? So, is your mother U Sangkimi?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you know me then?”

“No, I don’t think so. Who are you, sir?”

“If you are who you said you are then I am supposed to be your uncle. Call me uncle Mawia. Your mother would be able to tell you more about me.”

At that discovery, important and significant as it was, he lost all his enthusiasm to carry on with the conversation and he signaled me to leave the place and I promptly suggested that we’d leave. He was quick to agree and we left immediately. He did not look back at the girl, who was not to be considered sexy anymore after the revelation.

“You must be very happy to discover your little niece there. She’s a lovely lass for sure.”

He sneered at me and kept quiet most of the time till I dropped him off at Chaltlang. That was the last I see of him during the whole year.