2 evenings with Kurumanis

The first evening with Kurumanis

It is one thing to eat your favourite dish every second day and it is another to eat it till the last bite every time.  I wonder what Mr Kurumani would have thought after I kissed his wife’s hand in praise of the mouth watering matar paneer dish she had served me in dinner today. He would not have felt jealous I guess, because later I praised him in the similar fashion for the soul satisfying Kheer he had made for me. I hope they both do something about the idea of opening Kurumani Kitchen in our city.

Most of the residents are bachelors like me who would dream high, criticize people, laze around in bed and wish for a tasty dish rather than learn to cook themselves. Kurumani’s kitchen could be a big hit among this market segment. I could look after marketing and business development, both of them on Product development and manufacturing. Let me draft it on computer and mail it to them. Manufacturing sounds weird for cooking! But, here I go! bam! Mail sent! I should call Shikha now! Its 12 pm!

But I think she would have slept by now, will call her tomorrow.

I don’t know why Shikha calls Mrs Kurumani weird, Mrs Kurumani behaved so nicely today. Gosh! Mr Kurumani is such a lucky guy! I mean, Apart from being prettier than rose petals, Diksha Kurumani runs her own law firm, an NGO for farmers and loves him madly while all Karan Kurumani does is sit at home, visit exotic places and dirty lanes of city to make paintings; nonsense art which no one buys.

Karan is a masseur and runs his parlour and, maybe earns respect in his woman’s eyes through this crumby job. Shikha somehow, I don’t know why she has high regards for Mr Kurumani; maybe because they both belong to same town or is it something else? Sometimes I have suspicions over Shikha...No I can’t be negative and possessive... Breathe in! Breathe out! It is sleep time.

Listening to Mike Oldfield on my mini Bluetooth speakers relieves me off all the stress of the day, It was a bad day at office, client was just not willing to buy our idea of re-inventing his Brand image and extend his company’s Brand Portfolio. (Music playing)

I like this saxophone sound or is that a flute! In this song, oh! Ommadawn is such a soothing piece of music. Times are complex these days, your nerves need such tunes to caress them.

..........

The second evening with Kurumanis

I will always remember today, apart from being yet another terrible day at office, this day has hit me so hard on my head that it has left scars which no good memory or counselling will be able to heal. As I write this incident here, my pen begins to tremble in between my fingers.

I was returning from office and It was raining heavily, the lane to my house was jam packed with cars due to a yet another marriage reception event in our neighbourhood. So I decided to park my car outside Kurumani’s bungalow, which is hardly a Km or two from ours’. As I got off, I thought it would be a good idea to have a cup of tea at Kurumani’s and wait there for rain to slow down.

I was about to enter the Kurumani home when I heard a gunshot from their backyard, I initially disposed it off as a lightning strike, but I realized my idiocy when I heard a second gunshot from the same direction, suspecting something wrong I raced towards the backyard of Kurumani bungalow, what I saw there was horrifying.

Mrs Kurumani had tied her two year old daughter to a chair and was about to shoot her with a bullet from the gun in her hand. The little girl dressed in pink raincoat was though crying in rain but her tears were clearly visible. Maybe, she too, just like me, was shocked seeing her mother this way. I overcame my numbness and ran towards Mrs Kurumani, but before I could push her to floor, Diksha pointed the gun towards me. I got scared as hell seeing the barrel of gun and Diksha’s ferocious big diabolic eyes. Sensing my end, I closed my eyes and started to see images of my times with Shikha and that evening with Kurumani’s.

I was woken up by a touch of Karan on my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, I saw Shikha hugging Diksha who was crying. I got agitated seeing this, so hurried towards Mrs Kurumani, slapped her hard and shouted “stop your drama, you devil”.

Karan held me and said “what nonsense are you saying ? “

I said “she was trying to kill your daughter, her own daughter “

Karan replied “which daughter? what daughter? What the hell are you talking about man!”

I pointed my hand towards the direction where their daughter was tied on chair, but to my amazement she was not there.

Karan went towards Diksha and hugged her tight and said “ I have told you a hundred times not to forget to take your medicines, and give me that gun, I will return it to the security guard”

Shikha hugged me, held my hand and pulled me towards the direction I had parked my car.

We sat in the car, Shikha started the car and told me about Diksha’s disease;  ever since from her childhood Diksha  always wanted to be a shooter, to represent India in Olympics but, after her daughter’s death she could never recover herself. She is suffering from some mental disease. Whenever she sees the gun, she starts her target practices. She was doing the same today.

I was drenched in my emotions from inside when Karan’s voice interrupted me. I saw him talking to Shikha sitting in driver side window. I don’t know what they were talking about, but I remember he definitely laid a peck on her lips. I couldn’t believe my eyes and I am still unsure because the next thing I remember is, Shikha looking straight in my eyes and Karan was no where visible.

Shikha yelled “just come out of it, would you like some music”

I hesitatingly said yes, I have never been so unsure about myself.

We listened to Ommadawn as we headed back home.