I can make you out by the pitter patter of your feet

It is dark, cloudy and gloomy outside. This is just the sort of weather which on a daily basis would depress me to no end but once in a blue moon when we get the luxury to experience the rain in all its glory, here in Delhi, we love it and embrace it. Yes I know how one litre of rain causes the city traffic to come to a halt and most of us working folks find it so tiresome driving back home in the evening or shuttling from Court to office and back becomes a gargantuan task in the middle of the day.  But what the hell, a rainy day is a rainy day, even if the only little part I get to enjoy of it is to take a sneak peak at the open parking lot set against the grey sky and to sniff at the smell of the coming rain in anticipation and hope that it quenches the parched souls.

I was in Dilli Haat on Monday afternoon because I was on my way  for an appointment and I also happened to be craving Pork Momos and fruit beer from the Meghalaya Tourism food stall. I must have spent half an hour at the most, hurrying up and eating and turning a blind eye to the all the zillion colourful stalls that were calling me, knowing that I have no time to stand and stare. But how I enjoyed those stolen 30 minutes from my busy, busy day because they so didn’t fit into the schedule yet I had made it a point fit it in somehow. I so wanted to take a look around at the bric bracs and the knic knacs but alas it was Monday afternoon and office hours.

Did I tell you the tale of the two lizards in my loo who only make an appearance in the mornings and miraculously vanish by the time I am back home at night, only to be welcomed by them again the morning? I hate lizards. I loathe them and there they are having found such a happy and cool sanctuary which is my loo. I feel it is raining lizards these days. The lift has an ugly, tiny one that promises to grow into a monster, complete with black spots all over it. You can imagine, how much of my time is spent shooing them away, for me to have noticed even their intricate body patterns.

Can you make out someone’s presence just by hearing their footsteps?  I know I can and I only realized it a couple of months back, and that too in this office, that my senses are tuned in this fashion. I can make you out by the pitter patter of your feet? How absurd is it! Last year I could make out R and A coming and standing behind me as I worked and they would be astonished how I never turn around yet I know it is them. Then it was Abhi with the skip in her footsteps and now it is J as he drags his feet along in an emotionless fashion.  In my mind’s eye I can make out my Mum’s footsteps walking down any corridor just by her slow dragging rhythm. I try to remember Bonu’s but somehow cannot seem to. I am sure if she walks past by me I can close my eyes and tell it is her.