The Walk

IT was almost after 7 years that he was passing through the same road again…before 7 years it was the same road they took almost every weekend….he and his friend……

WOW-What fun they had…talking about stupid things, discussing politics and religion and philosophy…and yes…girls too….about how the most stupid guys got the most beautiful babes, and how they made fun of some waiters in the pub they use to go and what movies they saw over the week….all over whiskey and cigarettes …it was their weekly stress buster.

They were similar in many ways…almost identical thoughts, liked the same kind of movies and even the passion for movies was the same. They both loved music but listened to different kinds of music.

So in some cases it was like they complimented each other and at other times it was like resembled.

He and His pal where in the similar profession and both worked from home and it was almost necessary to get out of their homes after sitting in front of the computer and working for 6 days…it was almost mandatory to go out to talk to real people and not virtual clients.

And…boring it may seem to many but they followed the same routine almost every Saturday night….meet at the same place, have the same amount of whiskey, eat the same food followed by paan…even spit on the same place and they even had a tree which they called “PEE TREE” where they stopped after their food and drinks on their long walk back from where they took auto rickshaws to their respective houses.

The above mention of the PEE TREE was important because after they were done with their process of refilling nature…the road from that tree to the point where they smoked and left for their homes was lonely…lonely not as in barren..There were bungalows on both sides of the road and even the road had little traffic...After all, they were in Bombay and the city did not sleep. But it was the small lanes those were empty and deserted at that hour of the night, and they served as the business areas for cheap hookers who did their business hiding when a cop car goes by and coming out when they spot a potential customer.

They always looked at the hookers and made stupid jokes about them and laughed their guts out.

Most of the hookers were “ugly” for them and they did not care about them but yes...they always talked about them nonetheless.

Out of all those hookers one of them always caught their attention, to call her ugly was definitely an understatement but then others were ugly too, so what was about her that was intriguing?? Well she use to were dark glasses even at 1 in the morning when it was dark out side…and that was about her…both of them designers and visualisers had their thoughts running…he said may be she was blind, his pal said may be she had unbelievably sexy eyes and she showed only to her customers.

On certain Saturdays when the whiskey or the paan was more potent then usual then their stories about the “blind hooker” took amazing dimensions.

Once they even made a story that she might have eyes like Angelina Jolie and on another Saturday they said to each other that she had all the diseases in the world that can be transmitted sexually and they laughed…his friend said that “Dude the moment you touch her and you will have AIDS and all possible STDs, or when she takes of the glasses fire streaks will come out of her eyes and u will just be charred to death.

Once they even talked that may be she is an alien or may be she is an ISI Agent.

But they never came to know why she wore dark glasses in the night and they always wondered who will “take” her coz she was so disgusting.

And one day while coming out…just out of pure curiosity, his friend said to him,” Mate, just imagine… what if its only us who saw her and no one else did, and he said, “ ye man, that’s so freaky”. And they laughed”, smoked their cigarettes and left after saying their goodbyes and plans to meet the next weekend and do the same stuff again.

…So he was back on the same road…after seven years, alone this time as his drinking buddy no longer stayed in the city and he too had left the city an year after his friend.

But they were still in touch over emails and chats.

When he had said to his pal about his plans of visiting the city, his friend had said that if u get a chance do go to our old place and see how things are, and even he wanted to do so.

His was a 5 days visit to the city for some work. That day being a weekend and he was free early and had nothing to do so he said to himself, “what the hell! Why not go to the old place and have a drink or two by himself”.

Although it was not the same as it used to be, but it was fun and while drinking he had a thought of recording the “Walk” with his cell phone camera and send it to his old pal.

So he stared off…went to the paan stall…had a paan and the paan guy actually recognized him and he thought to himself as a good start.

Most of the buildings were same along the path and yes, there were hookers too…he keeps moving and smiling to himself remembering the old times and when he passes the same spot...he sees her…the dark glasses were still intact and she looked as dreadful as before, but yes she was there…he smiles to himself, reaches the spot, lights a cigarette and takes the cab back to the hotel.

After reaching back to his city he takes the video of the phone and transfers it to the computer and mails it to his buddy.

He also shows the video to his office mate and his pal gets the mail and he is also seeing it with his friends, they both mention about the places and also mention about the blind hooker and the jokes they made about her….

His office buddy and his pal’s friends who saw the video, they ask the same question…”Which Blind Hooker, man…we don’t see anyone under that tree”.