This is a memoir taking place in my locality of West Bengal that I wrote down after the incident ':D
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The bag swished in my hand, my feet apace. My breathing the tiniest bit heightened. I should be able to spot it. I know her.

The cool air found an opening near my belly and my shirt fluttered in the blowing wind. A soothing breeze- the city alive in its every molecule. The times I got to get outside and go on errands now felt more like a blessing than a chore.

I turned the curb and walked briskly. At the next corner, my pace weakened, and gradually I came to a stop. No good, I missed the shop in all this hurry. It would be a waste of time if I turn back now.

I looked behind.

My expression eased.

This seems to be a better option anyways. So what if I forgot to order the chops at the stall I was supposed to? The one behind me was the better option anyways. I would order now, and while returning, take the hot pockets of goodness on the way home. Why walk in the opposite direction to order from our usual spot? Unnecessary hassle. This was more productive.

I walked back and leant over the glass pane, shielding the customers from the heat of the burning pan. "Mashi, I'd need twelve vegetable chops. Could you make so many? I'd come back in five minutes," I said in a bit of a rush. The woman glanced at me reconfirmed my order and nodded.

I took off.

Don't panic, I told myself. Just keep your eyes open and sharp at the surroundings. Get outside your head, control your body and your gaze. You'd just need to look around a bit at the worst if you don't spot it rightaway.

With long fathoms, I trod my way up the road, glancing at the shops to my sides. I went up the slant of the road, getting closer and closer to the area where I ought to become more alert. I could see the main road now.

My pace lessened and I processed everything I looked at from one side to the other. No, not here...is it in some other lane to the sides?

I was getting worried. I passed the place, went down the slant and reluctantly stopped. Maybe she didn't open the shop today. Then again, what if I missed? While searching aimlessly I asked the man at the egg roll stall. "Kaku, where is the momo stall?"

The man chewing tobacco peeked at me while frying the parathas and instucted me in the reverse direction, where I had just come from. Did I really miss it? I gulped. "Is it in some lane going inwards to that side?" I pointed with my pupils. He shook his head and repeated his response.

I blew out the air through my nose and went up the slant again. No. I couldn't find it. Should I take rolls instead? Papa did tell me to bring rolls if the momo shop hasn't opened.

I decided to look some more. I asked two ladies in a tea stall about it.

"Momo?" One lady said in a high pitched country tone. "Oh, she hasn't opened today I think. She sits there-" she pointed a finger and I followed it. It was roughly in the same direction where she used to sit previously. But she had changed her location a bit. That's what Papa had said. So maybe it was- ugh, I didn't care.

"Oy! Ei Nepo!" She shouted in that cawing voice of hers. It pierced my ears. Whoa. Nepo? That was what people informally called the Nepalis. I turned around. What a miracle! There was Shobha di! Okay, she wasn't my didi and I should have probably called her 'aunty' and I would have if there was the need, but while mentioning about her at home, or rather to any other person, I would either dump the honorifics altogether or use the ones my parents used. It was a bad habit of mine.

The little dwarf came scurrying across the road, skipping like a cartoon character. "Yah."

"You've got a customer! He's been looking for you," the woman from the tea stall said.

Shobha di looked at me. "I need four plates of momos. Can it happen?" She wasn't in the shop and was buying vegetables, or that was the idea I got when I spotted her anyways so, I was not sure if she had momos ready or not.

"Oh, yes, yes. Come, I will take you to my home." She placed her hand on my arm and ushered me to move forward. Ok, this situation is unexpected.

I walked ahead of her, unsure if she really was going to cross the main road or go in any other direction. I lessened my pace and let her get in front of me. Right then she stopped and turned towards a grocery shop. "Please wait a minute," she said.

I did. I observed the shops and the packets that hung from the doors, searching for any new flavours of chips that may have launched that I hadn't yet got a chance to taste.

There was a sweet shop just before the grocery store Shobha di had gone into. A bald-headed man looked at me. I looked at him. "Oh." I recognised him when he smiled. He was a distant relative.

"Oh, how are you?" I managed, meekly.

"Hey, how is your father? Is your grandma well?"

"He's okay, though a bit rusty still. He can't do the more strenuous tasks yet. The doctors said he'd need a period of a month to recover completely from the operation. And yes, she came home yesterday. I went to receive her from the car."

"Is she able to walk?" He said in a worried voice.

"Oh, not really. Her legs are swollen and now even her hands. Though they say it's better than what her condition was in the hospital... When the doctors have sent her home, she must be faring. When the car came, we took a chair right to the door and hoisted her upstairs like that."

"Very good, very good." He nodded his head in appreciation.

"Okay, I'm done, let's go." Shobha di came down from the store and asked me to follow behind her.

"Yes," I answered to her. "Okay, I'd get going now, then." I looked at the uncle while turning around to make a move.

"Yes, yes." He smiled, waved and went in the opposite direction.

I followed Shobha di upto the crossing. She kept on saying stuff I couldn't make out due to the noisy crowd. I just managed to tweak in a "hmm" or a "yeah" at places.

The signal finally turned green and I watched with fascination as the little human crossed the road. A car turned the division despite her being near. "Where would you go? Over me?!" she shouted and continued forward, eventually reaching the other side.

"This way," she turned left and followed the main road keeping a safe distance.

"So have you kept the shop close for some days?" I asked her, watching where my foot went as I carefully tip toed over the muddy path- cycle tyre prints making it look weaker than it was.

"Oh, no. We just came back from Howrah so it's tiring to get right back to business, so my son suggested to take a day off."

"Oh, and you have the momos ready? How come?"

She smiled, "Well, you see. My son loves momos a lot and I also make additional ones for sale later on as they take quite some time to make. So, I have some in my house."

We walked quite a ways. I was unsure how far she was taking me when she turned around and began passing through a large gate. "Come." She motioned with her hand.

Once I passed through the opening, she told me to sit on any of the chairs lying around while she brought the momos. I obligingly nodded and took a seat. A watchman sat before me, lost in thought.

My glasses had become foggy so I took them off and cleaned them with my shirt. I blinked. I looked up and then around the perimeter to behold a blurry world. Suddenly, I wanted to view this place with my eyes, and eyes only. At that moment, I felt alive. I felt calm. I felt composed. I felt I had come out of the program I was running in. I was not a code anymore, working for a purpose, a desired output. No. Now, I felt human.

I stretched my fingers out and closed then again. I wore my glasses back and looked at the flats beyond the fence. I got back memories. I remembered the time I had got back from school for the first time on foot. It was at least a five kilometre walk. And upon seeing those same flats from a distance, I had gauged I was near home. They looked nice in the night, raising their bodies into the dark void, the red logo of "Oswal" shining in the front.

Yet more memories came to me. I remembered the feelings I had while I wrote about some tall skyscrapers. How humanity seemed from up there. How Life looked buzzing from a perspective beyond natural reach. It summed up our existence in a single view. It brought us closer to the stars, even if by an infinitesimally small amount...

I searched for inspiration, looking at the objects all around me. I tapped my fingers on my bag after hearing a few beats coming from the watchman's lap. I hummed. No new tune yet. All those notes were some that I often used. I changed the rhythm, tried to make a melody more slowly...

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. Then opened them to see the windows of the Oswal building. Some were lit. Few were dark. My melody mirrored this vibe I got. Of human lives spent in a hurry, of everyday, an endless stream of events, with no meaning but risen from mere chance, happening because it can. We give meaning to our lives by such events brought to us by fate. Some that we take as our destiny. Others we strive to make happen, and consider our goal. Yet so many orders of things are out of our reach, our comprehension. We have little control over our lives...

The tone grew sombre and I looked at the gate. It was rusty. The appearance suggested it was a poor alloy with a lot of tin, judging from how thin it was. Holes had formed, and from a certain hole, a bright light entered my left eye, one not blinding in intensity. I pushed myself a bit backwards and the light disappeared. Aha! This is the perfect position to place a clue! Like how in the movies they leave such clues where the treasure shines in a certain place and only on a certain day of the year... Irrational thoughts, but, I was having fun. Had I been home, I would have had to study like everyday. Some days I liked to learn the concepts and practise the problems, but lately, I wasn't in the right mindset. This was a nice break. Had it not been for the guests, I wouldn't have got this chance of going out at night.

A prick on my arm. I slapped it to see a mosquito hovering. Such a ubiquitous presence! No matter where I went there's always bound to be some trying to suck my blood.

For a few minutes I looked at the watchman's chamber where the light was on. Earlier I went in to sit in there but thought it to be better to sit in the open where the wind blew. There were glasses and a teapot there, a few utensils and a short wooden bench. I turned to look at the watchman. He was still lost, thinking. What did someone like him do at this age? This job is so boring and he just sat there without entertaining himself anyhow. Had I been given this job, I would have done away with all the backlog of tasks I had on my phone.

Is it that time for him? Is he looking back at his life? Maybe wondering about his family? I looked past him where I detected a sudden motion.

A frog. A rather large frog, jumping it's way over the grass.

The watchman now got up, and poured himself some tea.

Hey, it was getting late. If I had to guess, fifteen minutes had already passed.

"What would she give you?" The man shifted in his chair and turned his head back to ask me.

I was a bit surprised to suddenly hear him speak after all this time. I cleared my throat and said, "Momos. I would take four plates home. I have some guests. But it's getting late. I also ordered some chops on the way here. They'd probably get sold if I wait too long." I frowned.

He sipped his tea again. "They keep the momos ready the days they open the shop."

"But she said she had them ready!"

He looked at me. "They say that." He sipped again. "How many momos are there per plate?"

I took only a moment. "Six."

He nodded.

I was now really getting anxious. "What's the time?"

The man got up from his chair and walked to his cabin. "Fifteen minutes to eight o'clock."

"Oh."

He came back and sat down. I looked at the direction Shobha di had went in. I didn't see exactly which house she went inside so it wasn't possible for me to check.

Regardless, I got up and paced in the field before me. There was a little idol of Kali in a mini temple right in front of me.

"Hey, sit down," The watchman called.

"Maybe I should come back later? I can deliver the chops back home and come back. They should be having snacks right now. I don't know how long they will stay. I can't leave them on an empty stomach."

The man looked towards the houses and slanted his body to get a better view.

Right then, I sensed movement from past the tree leaves.

"Is she coming?"

"Yeah, looks like it."

What a relief! There she was with a large packet in her hand, with individual alluminium packets within containing momos, sauce and soup.

She handed the packet to me, saying, "Here, four plates of momos."

"Forty rupees each, right?" I asked shoving my hands.

"Yes." She walked past me. "Come with me, I have to go to the shop. I'd need some things," saying that she was out of the opening in the gate.

I emerged outside and quickly walked up to her, and then past her, but not by a stretch.

"So, what took so long?" I asked, trying as polite a tone I could muster.

"Arre, the momos were cold, no? My son would eat them at night when my husband returns. So I had to heat them up, is all."

"Oh, I see."

"So why did he send you?" she said.

"Huh?" I didn't get what she meant rightaway.

"Oh, your father! He buys from me often."

"Oh, yes. Yes, he does. It's why he told me to look for you. But how could he come? The guests are his friends after all," I giggled.

"Oh ho ho!"

I crossed the main road and was back on track for home. She stopped at a butcher shop to make a change of forty rupees for me. I had given her a two hundred rupee note.

"Go quickly now." She motioned with her hand.

"Yeah." I chuckled, and ran like the wind. The slant downwards now gave me a headstart and I pushed my feet on the ground and propelled myself forwards. It had been a while since I had run on the road like this. I used to run outside all the time when I was a kid.

I walked briskly with the gained momentum and arrived at the chop stall as soon as I could.

"Mashi, those twelve vegetable chops. Are they ready?" I said, while panting.

She looked at me tentatively and smiled shyly and said, "E baba, only six are left. I kept those chops for so long, but eventually sold them off. I thought the boy had told me he'd be back in five minutes but what happened, it's almost thirty minutes now."

My face scrunched in anguish, but I smiled in frustration anyway and replied, "Arre, you don't know. I got held back at another shop. I waited there for like twenty minutes or more till I got the items. Aren't there any more chops left?" I was getting worried. The way she said only six were left had an insinuation that there weren't any more left to fry. What if that were the case? How would I manage with only six chops?!

She pulled out a tray from underneath and my eyes opened wide.

"You are lucky. Only six more are left."

I grinned so hard my cheeks hurt.

She relieved a few other customers, some asking for the vegetable chops, and she explained how they were already booked. Wow, I got lucky!

She then fried the remaining six vegetable chops and put the twelve in a paper bag. She then put the paper bag into a plastic bag and gave it to me. I put that in the bag I was carrying alongside the momos and handed her the money.

And again, I ran fast and swiftly through the lanes and towards my home. Oh boy, I couldn't wait to tell them about what happened!

After opening the gates and getting upstairs, I put those bags on the ground in the kitchen. My mother came and I said, "Say, thank you!"

She grinned and said so. I smiled in delight and went in to take a bath. And like that I narrated her the whole story.

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"Whoa, there are seven momos in each packet!"

And I laughed. What happened today?