He looked at the red colored salted tamarinds laid out in
the cart of the hawker. He smiled in
remembrance of the tangy childhood afternoons with her. It had been years since he had last bought
tamarinds for her.
He thought of the afternoon they first saw the imli wala. Within
a few days of his arrival, the imli wala was always crowded with school
children. They were waiting for their bus when the imliwala offered them some
tamarind fruit. She craved for the mouth watering tamarinds but they had no
spare money to indulge. To make sure that they don’t eat any unhygienic outside
food, their parents gave them money only enough for the fare for the bus.
He bought her the tamarind for 1 rupee out of his 2 rupee
bus fare. They were just 7years old
then. She was happy to have what she wanted but worried about going back home.
He knew the way home and together they walked all the way home. Chattering, eating
the tamarind and spitting the seed. This
became a weekly ritual. Every week he
would buy her tamarinds and then they would walk all the way home.
They were friends and neighbors. They called their weekly walk as the “Imli
walk”. The imli walks made them best friends.
He remembered how she worried about lying when they walked
home late. He had suggested that they drop tamarind seeds all the way in the
soil so that there would be tamarind
tree everywhere . and they won’t have to buy tamarinds They had actually
dropped seeds on the side walks and poured water with their water bottles. They checked on the sidewalks every week and
felt dejected to see no plant there.
When they were 10 she had once come crying to him and said, “I
think I m going to have a baby.”
He had been surprised and curious and asked, “How
do you know?”
She had said, “Preeti says her mother is going to have a
baby and so she keeps wanting tamarind. I too keep wanting tamarind so I also
will have a baby. How will I manage the
baby and its shit? How will I go to school taking the baby?”
“Don’t worry we will take care of it and we will have new
toy to play plus we will get to play with the toys for the baby too!”
They were so innocent and not known what they had been
talking.
They had grown up and grown apart but still been there for
each other.
He packed the tamarind and took it home. When he opened the pack for her, he saw the
same childish grin on her face. It was the tangy childhood coming back. She
placed one of them on the tip of her tongue and slowly sucked in its sour taste.
She ate one after the other not realizing when to stop. She ate till her
tongue burned with the excess she had
eaten. She looked at him and they both laughed.
“Your baby has had
enough of tamarind for now. I bet it’s a girl!” she told him.
He took out the sweet tamarind sweet which he always bought
for her along with the tamarind. He knew she liked to eat it after she was done
with the sour ones.
“You remembered?” she asked in surprise
“I bet it’s the girl who wants to eat tamarind in the name
of my baby.” HE winked at her
“Then your baby
craves for Belgium chocolate icecream” she chuckled and pulled him close.
