CHAPTER 2. ANGERED STARES

By next morning I was back into my old city; I had to take care of a few monetary affairs before I would take off towards a world that was forgotten by the people living outside it. As I was coming out of the bank, I saw a young girl clad in a light blue jeans and a black silk shirt, standing across the street beside her silver color 7 series. Her hair were cut short and a pair of sunglasses rested on her forehead; she had the most perfect spotless skin I had ever seen, as fresh and luminous as olive oil in bright sunshine. Her eyes seemed to have come out of a Monet. But she reminded me of the material comfort and ethical inanity of her class; and helplessness and insignificance of those who only deserved a miniature headline in the middle pages of an outdated newspaper. Such monstrous disparity brought shades of wrath on my face; and I kept those expressions intact as I looked at her and just at that moment she looked back at me. I rolled my eyes off of her and onto her car, decorated a deeply sarcastic smile on my face and walked on.

A few yards ahead I saw a hoarding of an NGO that claimed to be working for sustainable development in the country; for the good of the people in other words. I stopped for a while and then entered the building. In a couple of minutes, I had acquired the attention of one of the managers working in the office.

“I need to find out all the possible details about Thar region; geography, climate, people, languages, anything, anything at all”, I said in a very sober voice.

“Sure, we have a book about Thar written by our chairperson…” The manager tried to be a salesman instead of a facilitator.

“No, I am not looking for a book; I only need facts and figures about the region.” I cut his speech and told him what I was looking for.

“Ahan, and may I ask what purpose do you need this information for?” he apparently didn’t like my blunt refusal to buy the book.

“I am leaving for Thar shortly, I want to help those people and I need to know about the place before hand.” I told him honestly and unswervingly.

“But we are already helping those people. We have a whole committee just for that…”

“Yeah and that’s why they are drinking colored water” a wave of fury oscillated through my brain as I stood up and left the room. If anything at all, there was one thing I had learnt in my life, when action is needed, words are a waste of time.

I walked out of the building and crossed the street moving towards my jeep that was parked a few yards from the bank. I had hardly taken a few steps when I heard a callous voice following me and stopping my way.

“Why did you do that?” Those words were spoken acrimoniously and for a moment left me befuddled. I turned around and saw those Monet eyes staring at me with more of seriousness than anger.

“Excuse me?” I asked in return, expecting a more relevant, a more understandable question.

“Why did you look at me as if there was some sort of atrocious reflection pinned on my face?” She obviously didn’t approve of the wrath that carried my first look towards her.

“You reminded me of nothing but pain and misery in some other people’s lives; you, with your so perfect world and so perfect life and so perfect being that everything else looks so ugly and flawed in comparison.” May be not in my eyes anymore, but my wrath was there in my words.

She didn’t understand a word I said to her or may be she did, but she was silent all of a sudden.

“Any other day, you would have reminded me of fresh warm raindrops, but today when I looked at you, I could only think of polluted water.”

She looked at me with utmost bewildered face, “You are one strange man and you speak one strange language, I am sorry I asked”, she started to walk away.

“What is the color of water you drink?” I asked her in a little loud voice.

She stopped, turned around and looked at me with even more puzzled eyes, “What?”

“What is the color of water you drink?” I repeated my question.

“Hah”, she uttered a reluctant laughter, “Its… colorless” she told me with a slight squint that was an indication for me to explain.

“There are people, not very far away from this city, for whom the only color in life is in the water they drink.” I softened my tone but said it to her very seriously.

She seemed to have understood what I was talking about; her eyes were intelligent enough to let me know that. “And you think I am responsible for that?” she asked me with as much seriousness.

“No. But you are responsible for not helping them” I completed assigning the blame to her and walked away.

I accompanied a few silent steps when I heard some loud steps followed by a fervent voice, “And what if I want to help?”

This was absolutely unpredicted; I only stared at her and I wasn’t coming out of the spectacle of her face until she started staring back at me. “I am leaving for Thar now” I finally uttered after a long silence during which I thought of absolutely nothing.

“Now?” she asked in a bemused tone.

“Yes” I said still staring at her.

And then it was her turn to go silent.

“Make it tomorrow” she finally said with the most positive tone.

I searched for truth on her face and in her eyes and it didn’t take me even a moment to find it.

“Ok. I will wait for you here tomorrow at nine.” I tried to hide that excited tension in my voice.

“Make it ten” she said reluctantly.

And I smiled, “lazy!” I thought; “Sure” I agreed to the time.

“Good. See you tomorrow then” she said and walked towards her car.

“Yeah, sure” I said and walked towards my jeep.

It wasn’t the way I planned but I absolutely had no problem with this change of plan. I drove down to a hotel and got myself a room for the night. Before I stumbled over a few thoughts and fell into sleep, I told myself she wasn’t going to come tomorrow.

Next morning, I waited in front of the bank. It was 23 past ten and she wasn’t there; even more disappointingly I wasn’t leaving, I was still waiting for her. Six more minutes passed and I was still uncertain about my prospects of leaving when she appeared.

“You are late” I wasn’t complaining nor was I furious.

“You should have left then” she said with a confident smile and put her bag into the jeep. “I was here at 10, but I just wanted to see if you really want me to go with you.”

“And…” I asked her smiling.

“Well, you waited for me” she said with a faint squint; I told myself it was a smile.

“So what’s the plan? What are we going to do there?” she asked while settling in the jeep.

“I don’t know. We’ll see what we can do when we get there” I said reluctantly, thinking it will flare her up.

“Great. I like that better” she said looking ahead at the road.

I switched the engine on and drove off.

She had the permission of her parents to take off for this trip; how did she get the permission, I didn’t ask and she didn’t tell. She was the daughter of one of the richest men in the country; a billionaire entrepreneur who had a saying in every imaginable business. I wanted to ask her why was she coming along with me to an unknown land of less known people to do something none of us was familiar with; but I left that thought unstated and kept driving. It was going to be one long drive.

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