One Cuppa Chai

°4°

If she saw us here together she would put up a poster in every bus terminal in Hyderabad.

Before she came to our booth, we'd wormed into the nearest door in our vicinity which bore a hoarding that claimed that Pizzas 'Chased away the summer blahs.' But the little cartoon of a toddler following a butterfly must mean something.

When we stumbled into the glass doors, we knew exactly what.

I looked behind me at the board that said that it was a KIDS tour of the kitchen and we both stood towering over Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Dopey.

I gave a sweet smile to the chefs. Slightly overgrown, but a child's heart inside after all.

A middle-aged man had just tossed a ball of dough in the air which flowered into a wider, elastic pancake of dough that landed adeptly in his hands. The children watched with awe and began to applaud. Not to seem more out of place than we already were, I also began to slow clap while Kabir stifled a smile.

But of course, after our unique feature of being several inches taller than the rest of the guests and the fact that we were not able to fit into the plastic toy chairs caught some staff's attention. They tried to explain to us as gently as they could that being a child at heart and being a physical one was not the same.

But we could always drop by for a discount on Yummy tummy Mondays apparently.

With two glossy handouts in our hands, we stealthily exited from the opposite door that led us into the washbasin area. Which seemed a little too condensed and puny for two teenagers to be standing there.

Somewhat like that random wooden door that Rose survived on in the Titanic. Except for the fact that Kabir won't be in mortal danger if he would freaking shift away and let me focus on my breathing.

Kabir noticed and after a moment, leaned back on the wall and plunged his fingers into his pockets. Observing Siya talking to the local gossipmonger.

I shifted back until my back hit a metal tissue paper roll, bruising my shoulder.

We somehow found the marble floor and our shoes more interesting than each other's visage.

Awkwardness.That's what this is called.

That's what we were doing. The only chance to have a decent, private conversation and we chose to bask in the noise of jaws chewing incessantly in the near table.

I was going to heroically plunge into striking a dialogue when Kabir resumed his posture, looking behind me. I didn't need to turn and confirm Siya's loquacious grin. I unfolded my arms and followed him with a huff.

Sisters are such spoilsports.

The next few weeks also, my sister graced us with her unnecessary presence everywhere possible and I was surprised when Kabir casually strolled alone on the terrace that evening. Our meeting place for the day.

He was casually strolling through the rows of potted plants when he spotted me. We both stilled for a single moment.

"Siya?"I asked feeling a little giddy.

"Your sister didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"She has a boyfriend."

There was absolutely no way my innocent nerdy little sister who made sweet love to the physics book could actually fall for the charms of a man.
Unless he was an educationist of course.

"Who is he?" I asked, completely clueless and doubly shocked. "When, how, who? Most importantly, who?"

"You know the Dhaba near our residency?"