karma

It was extremely hot. SHE had covered her head fully and was wearing the sunglasses   which she had preserved since long. They belonged to her child and looked quite pricy  though she could never estimate their price even after looking at the label.She hardly knew any brands.It was the way her child had  guarded it all the time  that she estimated its worthiness.The urgency with which she took them after her child discarded them  showed her hidden desire to always  possess them.They soothed her eyes and the dusty and scalding atmosphere got mellowed down to a soft hue of shady tenderness.Her aching legs picked up speed.Brushing the trees on the side walks she marched ahead. She was sweating profusely.The sweat dripped down her knotty fingers highlighting the thick varicose veins.She let it be.she never wanted to smear her hanky with the grimy sweat since she wanted to save it exclusively for her face.And then it was very bothersome to get a clean one everyday.The road was bare and  stunned with its reflected heat.

.She once felt the same way in Florida.The sun there was scalding.It almost roasted her naked arms.Her cousin unmindful of the unbearable heat was excited on the prospect of catching fish in the nearby river.The bare and ashen  roads had already dulled her sensibilities.She was awaiting the boat ride which could relieve her of this stinging heat.Her  cousin adjusted his fishing tools alongside in the boat and  drove through the placid waters  unmindful of the raining heat overhead. He  spanned the entire stretch of the river to gauge spots of good catches.She found the water dark almost black and the hot sun turned all the more merciless.The little canopy over the boat could not shield her from the penetrating heat.She looked up for some winds to blow but there was no sign of them.Her cousin looked excited .He beamed her a broad smile which had the pride of  an elite host who was entertaining his country cousin. He angled his fishing rod and fell into an intense gaze.She shuffled in the boat trying to hide herself in some shady nook to avoid the stinging needles of the burning sun.The dark mercurial waters beneath looked dismal.There was no vegetation growing there.It was bare and black.She once again  looked at her cousin and his dark tanned body.He looked so distant almost detached from  his environs. She remembered him as a wiry small kid of fair skin and thick curly hair.He was the leader among his group commanding yet bubbly.Now she could see the thin strands of grey hair plastered on either side of his temples.his angular face had toughened like that of a hunter who goes through the vagaries of  hunting. suddenly he made a snappy jerk. He had pulled out a carp and was feeling jubilant.it was a fair sized fish.She didn’t know what he would  do with it though  it could make a  delicious dish but the next moment he threw it back in the water and to her surprise a big bird flew from nowhere as if in  cue and swooped over it carrying it away in the wide open sky.Her cousin viewed it like a saint in deep reverie.She was mesmerized.Why did he throw it back after pinioning it with the hook?It was bleeding and in great pain and wanted instant deliverance .Perhaps the bird came to its rescue.She looked at him with an enquiring eye and he like a man enlightened said it was karma it was preordained  and  he was only the instrument for the fruition of this plan. She simply looked at him and  told him so  it was  how he interpreted his role in the scheme of things in his life.She averted her eyes and looked at the merky river which was oblivious of the turmoil which took place in its bowls.

The winds had started blowing.She stretched out her arms to let the winds dry them and thrust her face out to get the feel of the rushing winds.The big trees started a riot. The jamun tree was sheddind its fruit like raining pebbles.They were succulent and dark.She could see around her the buds and blossoms of different trees.The path got striven with the jamun berries.  It was tempting but she could not pick any   being watched . She rushed back covering her nose to avoid the stench of urine which stood there in pools along side the walls of the premier Institute which was her haunt in her daily routine.