The Delhi Chapter : Page 26

[ Purnima Bali.

Nice name, I thought.

To describe her, well..

Imagine all that I was not.

She stick thin like a French fry.

I fully fleshed like a Burger.

Her hair like a dish of maggi.

Mine like long strands of rice-noodles.

She dusky and attractive.

Me white and vanilla.

She dressed in slender pipe jeans.

I dressed in a standard kurta.

She wearing funky parrot-green loafers.

I wearing plain, boring Oshos.

Her leg tattooed and eye-brows pierced.

My legs and eye-brows left alone. ]

****

She sounded like a rather sweet girl when she talked.

Said she was born and raised in Delhi.

And was then studying in Bombay.

Post-graduation in Advertising from XIC.

After she finished, Bodhi suddenly jumped off the ledge (without reacting) and stormed out of the room.

He came back with a few sheets of paper (A4 printing paper, to be precise), and slapped them on the table.

Asked us to pick up one each and then, follow his following instructions...

[ I've never quite been a liker of writing on plain paper (printing paper especially).

Always thought saving was a good idea.

So I used my own recycled, hand-made paper. ]

As I was holding his blank white and still toying with the idea of asking him whether I could use my own,
he instantly picked up on my expression and said,  "Ya ya.. Go on.. Use your own paper.."

[ I loved the way he could read my face.

And tell exactly what was running through my head. ]

Purnima had no pen or paper.

So she used the one Bodhi got for us, and a black gel pen I loaned her.

Then, almost spontaneously, I punched my chin on the table and scribbled on the crown of my page.

Typically, on the top right hand corner:

Name: Sreshtha Chatterjee 

Assignment: No. 1. 

Date: November 1st, 2011.