Tea stall
“Nisha, quickly take the money and get us some tea before we head to the dance hawala”, Rhema’s high-pitched voice called out for Nisha, as they walked towards their dancing lessons. Nisha was a young girl in her early 20s with expressive features, long black hair, and fair skin that was accepted and adored by her family and neighbors. Nisha was walking briskly, as usual, while her best friend, Rhema, preferred walking slowly and calmly.
Nisha turned around and smirked at Rhema. “I know you don’t like when I walk fast, do you? I know you absolutely hate waking alone, Rhema, but here I am!” Nisha laughed with delight, greatly admiring her humor, while Rhema began visibly contemplating her life and her friendship with this “crazy girl”. The road where they were walking was somewhat steep and rocky, and there was tress that decorated the rather bland roads. As it was near fall season, the trees still had leaves, but the weather was usually chilly, with the sun seldom being out.
Nisha approached Rhema and collected the money from her and began walking towards the tea store. The tea store, run by a local uncle, was claimed by everyone that they have known him all their life, including the old Grandma that will celebrate her 92nd birthday next month. Nisha’s eyes darted over to the seats near the tea stall, and her previously radiant expressions suddenly became lost due to the dark clouds. The clouds in her case, were the various men that were currently laughing and chatting while drinking tea. Nisha’s eyes enlarged, with her lips parted, while she gulped and took a deep breath. Nisha was a good girl; she never dated any boys and was very polite, but in the case of boys, her mind sometimes drifted off to places she did not want it to go. Nisha shook her head, took a deep breath, and marched toward the stall. While marching, Nisha looked towards her left and noticed there weren’t any young men around, and just as she was going to take a breath of relief, she bumped into someone. Someone?
Was it Ritesh? Or Mahesh? Nisha dared not look who it was; it happened so quickly that she didn’t even know when it happened. All Nisha could process was the strong smell of rain and her strong feeling of confusion. Nisha had no idea what to do, so she just focused on gazing at the person’s blue shirt and dhoti*, wait, dhoti? Nisha looked up and saw a pair of kind eyes looking down at her. “Oh, sorry, sorry!” Nisha said, clearly flustered, and rather relieved that it wasn’t a young boy. “It is alright”, the man said, who looked like he could be in his late 50′s. Nisha excused herself and walked towards the tea stall and internally started beating herself for being so embarrassing. While waiting for the tea uncle to make two cups of tea, she sat down, and looked at the old man, who the other men in the stall called him “Mazi”. Nisha sat down, rested her chin on her palm, and observed Mazi’s features, as she was sure she had never seen him before. There was a small red radio on the table where Mazi had kept his arms rested in, and the radio played such melodious songs! These songs vary even more soulful than the music at her dance hawala, and that is saying something. Mazi had brown skin with dark curly hair, with a few greys here and there, his eyes were ancient and wrinkled deeply whenever he laughed at one of the other men’s jokes. “So what? I don’t care about his facial features”, Nisha thought to herself, and not even she was sure why she told herself that. Nisha decided that it was better to listen to the chirping of the birds in the oak tree near the tea stall; she had no idea why she did not let herself observe this Mazi man, and she also had no idea why she did not want to find out the answer. For now, she had to worry about reaching the dance hawala on time. So, with two hot teacups in her hand, Nisha carefully raced towards a bored Rhema.
“I know you can’t survive without socializing for one minute, so let us not waste time and go to the hawala”, Nisha told Rhema in a rather cooing manner. “You are...I don’t even know, sometimes you look so serious about life and all, but then there are times when you act like a weird kid.“, said Rhema, while shaking her head. Rhema was the same age as Nisha, with shorter hair but sharper features, and always had the dome-like gold earring which dangled like a chandelier. Nisha and Rhema decided to walk side by side, their Ghungroo** dueting with the melodious birds in the oak trees.
The dance classes took place under a large dome on the outskirts of their village, but the walls were only half covered; the other half was open for the wind to twirl with the artistic movements of the hands and feet of the students in the hawala. “Come, come, just on time, let us begin with the lessons. Oh wait, no, no”, Manisha Madam slapped her palms on her forehead, while trying to remember which students hadn’t arrived yet. “Oh yes, two new girls haven’t arrived yet. Oh my, I wouldn’t have liked the lessons to be started without everyone being there”. Manisha Madam was the dance teacher, and she had unending care about the people in her hawala. Rhema walked towards her other friends, and they seemed to have been discussing some serious matters with them. In times like these, Nisha had nothing much to do, as she wasn’t the one to understand serious conversations. Nisha looked at the radio music box, which was currently playing an old classical song, and she had this great desire to dance to the music that was playing on the radio in the tea stall. Nisha recollected the playing of the beautiful music in the tea stall when she was focusing on staring at Mazi’s shirt during their short interaction. “That moment was so cringe; I wish I paid more awareness to my surroundings”, Nisha murmured to herself, while resting her head on a wall.
“Nisha, Nisha, come here, it is very urgent.″, Rhema called out. Nisha wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion; she knew the tone of Rhema’s calls when she wants to inform about the latest gossip about young boys, but the tone this time was very different. Nisha urgently walked toward Rhema and the other girls that were surrounding her. “Nisha, the new old man that came into our neighborhood, the one you bumped into at the tea store. Well, he could be a terrorist”, Nisha shook her head. “Nisha, Nisha, let me tell you the story”, Rhema continued, “In the local news, there are reports of a group of terrorists that are spread out, and one of them might be near this area. But the police did not bother to investigate as this report is said to be a rumor.” Nisha motioned Rhema to continue, “So Nisha, the panchayat’s*** son, Suresh, told one of my friends about how this Mazi man turning in only a few personal documents of himself. But Suresh believes that the documents were forged, but his father doesn’t wish to be involved in complicated matters”, Rhema looked at Nisha excitedly, “This means that we have a terrorist in our village, and as good citizens, we should expose Mazi”. Nisha didn’t what to think of this matter, but she was highly alarmed about his incident, “Rhema, why do you look so excited about it. I mean, if we do have a terrorist, then this is scary. But I am not sure whether or not this is true.” Nisha was never good at judgment; she was the type of person who could never state a direct opinion about matters. Rhema then gleamed at her, “Well, to find out the real truth, I need you to be the spy of this mission”.
