"Wait a minute Kria, I'm coming". I shouted at the top of my voice so that my words go straight into her ears and for god's sake she would stop calling my name.
Kria is that over caring, over protective, friend of mine, or rather say that God has sent my mother back to me in guise of her.
I say 1 minute when its already 10a.m. in the morning and I'm still in my bed, smoking cigarettes, swiping through my Instagram feed and reading messages my clients sent me. Yes, these are the ONLY messages that I receive, almost daily. The appreciation that I receive from them is the second thing that keeps me going . First is cigarettes.
"For you one minute equals an hour or what?" Kria shouts again. I knew it was time for me to leave the bed and listen to what she has to say.
As I make my way through the stairs, my memory is triggered and I remember that I have a baking workshop today. I carried myself back to my room as fast as I could, grabbed the towel from the chair near my bed and rushed straight into the bathroom. Just after almost five minutes, I was standing in front of the mirror, dressed into presentable clothes, combing my hair and putting up little bit of my make up so that I could hide the dark circles that were more than just visible under my eyes.
My phone beeped of several notifications and thank God for it. I checked the time in my phone and scooted through the stairs into the kitchen. There was Kria, setting up the place for the workshop. I stood behind her back and put both my hands on her eyes.
"Tushara, just get your hands off my eyes. These things aren't going to work today" Kria said sounding upset.
"Kria, it's okay now. See I'm all ready for the workshop." I said to cheer her up a bit.
"Listen I want to-" Kria was about to say something just then the doorbell rang. One of the helpers from the kitchen rushed towards the door to open it.
I saw a gang of ladies coming forward, gossiping, looking up at the ceiling, pointing their fingers towards the kitchen and then doing their favorite thing, putting hands on their mouths in amazement.
This was my first baking workshop today. Till now, I only delivered self- made bakery items. But since I received quite a few emails and messages from people, and specifically middle aged women, I thought of conducting bakery workshop three days a week, for a month.
All the ladies made themselves comfortable in their chairs and I stood before the counter.
"Hello and good morning ladies, this is me Tushara Mittal, a home baker and your teacher today." I introduced myself so that the lips of the ladies would join back together and shut up their always open mouths.
"Good morning Ma'am" the ladies replied in unison.
"So, let's begin our first workshop together. Today we have tea cakes, cake balls and cookies on our list-to-learn." I informed them.
The class was going on in full swing just when a guy, maybe in his twenties, entered. He had a white complexion and he was wearing a red t-shirt and shorts.
Kria talked to him for a while and for that whole time I kept looking at them from the corner of my eyes and thinking how they know each other.