Detective Stories

I just can't keep away from my book reading... The recent one is of a collection of Detective Stories... The weirdest of these was the case where a dying man in his will wants to giveaway all his gold to a person whose weight is equal to the weight of the gold the dying man has. What a strange will!

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

I have always been fascinated by the Egyptian culture. The trip to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose was enough to bring back my old enthusiasm for reading and finding out more about Egyptian culture.

The most fascinating thing of all is the embalming of dead bodies into mummies and placing them in ornate tombs with so much treasures in them.

The way the mummies hands are placed signify whether it is a mummy of a royal person on not. If the arms are crossed and/or holding symbols/weapons of power then it's sure to be a mummy of a king/Pharaoh!

This picture on the right is of cover of the coffin in which Tutankhamun's body was placed. It is a replica of the actual coffin.

The inside of the coffins were also full of paintings of sacred symbols or Gods or of After Life. We were totally lost in the mysteries of Egypt.

Below is a picture of a mummy from an Upper Class Egyptian family. Even though this body is thousands of years old, it has not disintegrated much. Curiously, when this body was scanned, the X-ray showed a metal pin at the knee cap. It is believed that while  embalming the body, some accident caused the knee cap to get crushed and the embalmers performed a surgery on the body to hold the knee joint with a metal rod/pin. Even thousands of years ago, these Egyptians had such skills! Amazing!

Before Greeks invaded Egypt, the Egyptian women (on coffins) were painted with yellow/golden faces to symbolize their cow Goddess, Hathor. However after invasion of Greeks, the queens had pinkish faces and hence, from then on the faces on the coffins were painted pink. Below is one such pinkish face.

This is just the beginning. There is so much more to discuss. A separate post on Egyptian culture will be posted soon! :)

Knotty Tidbits: 9

Title: Reading out aloud

Lucky are those who love their spouses and luckier are those who share their love of reading. 

Nothing seems more peaceful than listening to the booming voice of the better-half narrating the story of an English boy who wants to be a detective ("When we were orphans") and leading me through the lanes of London; while I lie down with my eyes shut and letting my imagination soar to look at the same London lanes in my mind's eye! I lose myself in the high and lows of his voice and am totally engrossed in the narrative. Such moments in life are precious. They are to be cherished even if they last for just a couple of paragraphs... During those moments of togetherness, there is complete oneness of soul! Ooh! What a bliss! :-)

By the way, this photo is taken in Rosicrucian Egyptian museum, San Jose. We visited the place last week. I have so much to say about the museum; all that will be coming up as a separate post. It could be a series of posts, who knows?!! ;-)

Carroms

We have been on look out for purchasing a carrom board for long. The sound of the striker hitting the carrom board and the coins falling into the corner holes.. Ooh! I simply love this game! This game was a must during all our holidays. It was a great pass-time.

Little did we realize that the meaning of Carroms on this side of the Atlantic ocean is very much different! In India, the game is played using a large striker made of glass or wood and the white and black coins made of wood. But here in the US, the coins look more like rings and are much smaller and the striker could be a cue stick too! That's quite a shock to us!

We can understand the concept of a game having a slightly different rules in different countries/cultures; but what beats me is the fact that the board itself is so different from what it is in UK/India!!! That's strange!

Tandem - A Book Review

These days I have got back to my habit of reading. And I thought it would be nice to post a review of it here. The book is Tandem by Tracey Bateman.

This book is a sequel to a book named "Thirsty".

I got this book from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for review. Any book lover can register at their website and select books for review. The books are sent to our mailing address for free and we get to enjoy reading them. Then once we post the review of that book on their website, we can select the next book for review. This suits me well! :-)

Now coming back to Tandem...

This book is about a series of murders that happen in Abbey Hills. It is also the story of lives of several people living in Abbey Hills. There are a number of parallel threads in the storyline that makes this novel even more gripping.

Generally, I do not prefer reading vampire story, but this one is an exception. The narrative is not very gory or scary; yet there are some incidents in the novel that gave me goose-pimples. The twists and turns in the story kept me guessing the murderer whose details are not revealed until the end of the book.

The writing style is lucid and crisp with more emphasis on the narration rather than on describing the setting where the incidents take place. At the same time, the simple description of the locales give us a good idea about the landscape of Abbey Hills.

This book can be a good choice for entertaining us during long journeys/travel. And it can be good for people who like fast pace narratives, suspense and adventures.

I can't wait to read "Thirsty"! :-)

Good Old Days - Intro

I have been thinking of starting a new series of posts related to my childhood memories. And this is for what "Good Old Days" section is...

This morning while I was wiping my wet hands with a tissue, I was wondering when was the first time I saw/used one. 

Tissues are basically from western culture. In India, we use water for cleaning and hand towels for drying ourselves. In some ways it would have been better if we had stuck to the same. We can understand why tissues are a nessacity in Western countries; the weather is too cold to use water; but with a tropical climate like ours, using tissues is merely laziness or to flaunt class/status.

During our childhood days, Appa (father) would get us some tissues from the Air India flight. Some of them were wet tissues. We would sniff at their pleasant smell and keep it in some safe place for ages. I also remember stitching a dress for our barbie using a orange and white checked tissue. We would save the pink colored tissues and tissues with cartoon characters on them. Those were the days...

Year without a Summer...

While I wait for the rains to stop, I chanced upon this article about the year 1816. 

This article made me realize the smallness of the earth and how an eruption of a volcano in Indonesia would result in the decrease in temperature in the Europe and the Eastern part of the USA and in turn result in a year that had no summer, followed by a bitter winter and then one of the world's worst famine happened!!!

Surprisingly, this also resulted in a lot of other good things... like... the most spectacular orangy sunsets... invention of the predecessor to bicycle... invention of mineral fertilizers... and some world famous books and paintings...

A note of thanks to wiki that gives me food for thought!

A Complaint and a Plea!

Sunny during the week , And rainy during the weekend!


Don't you think it's so unfair?
Yet again, we can't go anywhere...


Try to be more considerate towards us, O Lord!
We beg you!

Music...

With V so far from me, I have only one thing to give me company.


Music!


It's amazing how music brings peace to my mind... It makes me forget my loneliness...

For past two days, I have been swinging to all my favorite dance numbers in Hindi and Telugu and Tamil... Of course, I would not want to play romantic numbers... They would give me heartache!

When I work, I have a single song run in the background for hours together... It does not bore me at all! In fact, it helps me focus more on work and less on the song!!!


So, for another 3 days, I can follow the same ritual... And then??? And then I will have V with me! :)

Mixed emotions...

Crying myself to sleep.... 
Then getting a funny dream...
And waking up clutching my tummy and laughing out loud...


That's a strange thing to happen!

Knotty Tidbits: 8

Title: Compliments!

These days I am all into playing computer games on V's new i-Pad. And my favorite game of all is the 'Bust A Marble'. That's where I get to burst marbles making crunching sounds! The only catch in the game is: every time we lose, we need to start all over again from Level-1. There is no way to save the latest level of the game and pick up from where we left. 

When I completed 13 levels in the game for the very first time, I was all excited. I was jumping and screaming "I won! I won! I won! I have crossed 13 levels!" And you know what V said: "Marbelous!" That's the best compliment I got in the recent times!

'Bust A Marble' is a 'marbelous' game indeed! :)

Bolster that was once a pillow!

Two of our pillows flattened to almost nothing after three months of use. Initially we pushed two of the pillows into a single pillow cover and used it under the head. But soon I got tired of it and wanted to make something out of them. 

And this is the result of the doing! Don't they look pretty?!

I rolled each of the pillows and hand-stitched it so that it would not unravel into a pillow again. It looked like cylinder. Then I stitched some fancy covers for it. And that's how the pillow took re-birth in the form of a bolster! :)

This bolster cover has some nice frills attached to it. Ain't it lovely?

And this one has machine embroidery done on it. In fact I stitched each line using a different embroidery stitch and now I could even use this cover for sampling the stitches before I decide to use a particular stitch on some other cloth! :)

Now V is very happy to use these bolsters for support while watching movies from our laptop! :)

Coins and Piggy Bank...

This post is dedicated to my Ganga! :)

No matter how much we earn, still coins play a very important role in life... For checking our weight at the bus stand or buying tickets for a bus ride or for paying for vendors in the train, we all need change... 
 
There is always a thrill to holding coins in our hands. It reminds me of days when one rupee would get us at least 10 orange peppermint candies... We would maintain a piggy bank made of terracotta. It would resemble an egg with a slit on the top for dropping the coins. The only way to get the coins out was to break it. But we three sisters found out another way of getting the coins out of the hundi (as we would call it!) With a help of sharp object like scissors we would hit at the slit of the hundi and carefully made the slit large enough so that by turning the hundi upside-down, we could see the coins fall against the slit and then with a small scissors we will hold the coin and pull it out. It was fun pulling out all the coins and them pushing them inside through the slit.

The major contribution to our hundi came from our dad's wallet and the major contributor is/was Ganga. The unsaid rule was: The destiny of any change in Appa's wallet was the Hundi!!! :) Ganga was/is the first one to look out for loose change in Appa's wallet or Amma's purse or on the computer table or fridge top or anywhere in the house. She was/is very good at looking at the right places and at the right time and the coins would be on their way into our Hundi even before we could open our mouths in protest! Now you know why I dedicated this post to Ganga! :)

We continued to maintain a Hundi long after we finished college and started working. After getting married, I could not help continuing the tradition. But I wanted a Hundi from where I could take out the coins without having to break it and so here is my creation...

I decorated an empty ice-cream box with fabric. I added a slit to it's side for the coins to slide in! Ain't it a nice idea? :-) 

Now I am ready to flick some coins from my husband's wallet for safe-guarding them in my Hundi! ;-)

Muscle Joke: Antakshari...

It's exercise time again! Here's another Muscle Joke...

While we were playing Antakshari at home, one of my friends sang the same song again. When we objected to it, he said, “This is the male version of the song!!!” And later, after a couple of rounds of the game, he sang the same song again. This time he explained, “It is not the same song. It is the remix version of the song!”

Happy Exercising! Hee Hee Hee!

Muscle Joke: Solidified Liquid!

It's been ages since we exercised our muscles!!! :)


Here is a muscle joke from one of our Mastimakerz..!


Q: Tell me something that is liquid when cold and solid when hot?
A: Dosa!!! (Indian Pancakes!)


So, how many of your muscles moved this time?? ;-)

Lamp for Diwali

A Happy Deepavali to Everyone! :)

This is the right time to share the details of my recent craft work... I decorated my lamp-shade using white sateen fabric and it has come out very well...

I saw in pattern in some blog and I forget the name of the blog, else I would have surely had a link to it... Thanks for giving me this idea! :)


I hand-sewed the entire thing. It was tough and time-consuming. But isn't it worth the effort? 


This lightens up our room so beautifully... And V loves it too! :)


Wish your Deepavali fills your life with lights and colours...! :)

Knotty Tidbits: 7

First surprising me with a hot breakfast ... 
What a way to start a Friday!

A yummy tomato gravy curry waiting to be served for lunch..
Tangy and Spicy Pani-puri for snacks...

All prepared by my hubby, just for me... Everything was so perfect today! I couldn't have asked for more!!! :-)
 
Psst... Exactly a month to go for the big day! ;-)

Quilting and Place Mats

This post is dedicated to Donna who has inspired me to start quilting. The first time I stumbled upon her site, I was(still am) all in awe for her designs and quilts. I was new to the idea of quilting and I did not have any knowledge about the techniques used in quilting. I had never seen a rotary cutter!

I keep asking her basic questions about quilting and she always explains me very patiently. Initially I did not know how triangle pieces were joined and she came up with a post for that. I used the same method for making my cushion cover. Then I learnt diagonal weaving technique from her. I am yet to try it out.

Thank you Donna for all your support! :)

I am trying to use quilting techniques in making little little things before I take a plunge into making a full size quilt. 

These placemats have given me a good practice! I took help of this link for putting another quilting technique to use. I joined one long strip(3 inch width) of yellow with another long strip of brown. And then cut them into segments and stitched them up as shown here.

I used a single cloth for the other side of the placemat, with a color that is not related to the colors used on the chessboard side. This way we can use either sides of the placemats.

This has helped me gain confidence for starting my first quilt. Let's see how that turns out to be! :) In Tamil, there is a saying: Naan irukka bhayamenn? which can be loosely translated as 'Why fear/worry when I am with you?". With respect to quilting, I can say 'Donna irukka bhayamenn!' (Why worry, when Donna is with me!) :)

Knotty Tidbits: 6

Title: Apples

During our visit to the Library Book Sale, we bought a 300-piece jigsaw puzzle. It has a single puzzle piece missing. But it does not matter at all. It is nothing when compared to the immense happiness that one gets while piecing the puzzle together!

V had never done a jigsaw puzzle and when he saw me struggling with the part that has the apples, he helped me. In fact he was the one to correctly place all those pieces in a jiffy. I was so much engrossed in solving it that I sat through wee hours of the dawn completing it. I could not just leave it unsolved, could I? :)

By the way, the theme of the puzzle seems apt for Halloween. Don't you agree with me?

The 15km walk

We both started for the library last Saturday and ended up at a Books-Sale. We selected all our books and reached payment counter at the closing time, just to realize that we had to pay by Cash ONLY and that we did not even have a single penny (or cent as in the US) with us. Reluctantly we left the whole bunch of books at the counter and decided to be back the next day(Sunday)

The library is around 3 miles away from home and we generally walk the distance. However that Saturday we stopped by at a grocery store on our way back home and the pedometer reading showed 7.91km. Around 8kms in a day! Oh my! Our poor legs were aching and even though I wanted to buy all those books the next day, I dreaded the walk. Also, we had to go to a super market to buy stuff. 

I thought we could take a bus to the library book sale. However, on Sunday morning, it did not feel right to take the bus. That's because we did not want to miss out on the beautiful walk and also we had to withdraw cash from the ATM.

We talked and walked and were at the book-sale in no time. It was a clearance sale. So, we could fill up a large grocery bag with books and be charged just $3 for the whole thing! Who would want to miss out on that! Happily, we picked up our favourite books and before we knew we had purchased around 45 paperbacks and seven hard cover.. All for just $6! That was a steal!

Later, we sat out on the lawn near the library and glanced through the books we had bought. Though our backs might have ached on our way back due the load of books and also the stuff that we bought at the supermarket, our faces beamed with happiness.. with the eagerness to get back and settle down with a book! What bliss! :)

BTW, the pedometer reading was 6.8kms on Sunday and that adds to around 15kms during one weekend... Never done that before!!! It's a record! :)

My first one...

This is my first attempt at using a quilt pattern. 

Initially I thought it would be very easy... Just stitching straight lines... But no! I was wrong! It requires a lot of calculation and also we need to be very precise with our measurements. I did this by measuring the length using a 12 inch scale on my vegetable chopping board. I am new to the use of rotary cutter. The cuts do not come that straight! Need more practice, I guess!

So, how do you find the new cover for the padding of our chair? :)

Under the spell of Python!

During my childhood days, I considered Python to the best amongst all the snakes. First of all, it is an Indian snake.. too much of patriotism, is it? And second of all, it is a non-poisonous snake unlike cobra.. that makes it a little less scarier..! ;-) And third of all, even if the python swallows a human being, there is a possibility of slitting the snake open and saving the person...! Of course, there is every possibility that the snake would wind itself around a tree right after it swallows me, but still...! Weird thinking!

Now you must be still wondering who is under the spell of Python... It is well known that a snake can come under the spell of the snake charmer but not vice versa.. Here I have a person, who lives in a trance and eats, breathes and sleeps Python! Not the reptile but the language! My hubby has gone so much into this Python programming language that last night he was blabbering about it in his sleep. "main...", "semicolon...","no curly braces...".. blah.. blah.. blah.. Even when I woke him up to ask him what he wanted to have along with Khichdi, he blabbered "blah blah.. curd..blah.. blah" using his Python syntax!

God knows when he will get out of the trance. Wish I could break the spell, but I am no witch!!! :)

Wondering what this picture has to do with Python. Well, nothing at all! This is a photo taken during the recent Fremont Fair. The spiraling things reminded me of snakes and hence it's a part of this post! :)

Crafts time!

These days I have plenty of time in hand. So started making little little things at home... Mostly things that I wanted to do during my childhood... Like this door knob hanging... :)

A story... Part-2

Hey I am back with the Part-2 of the story...! You can read the part one here :)

Part-2 starts here:

She looked around the house. The candles were leaving shadows of all objects onto the wall. There were huge photos of Carnatic music singers, of M.S. Subbalakshmi and of another violin player whose name she could not recall. The pattern of the window grill was familiar. That was when she realized that one of her grandma's friends stayed in the same apartment complex, probably in the same floor as she was in.

May be she should get out of the house while the old lady was in the bedroom. Then what about her books? They would surely get soaked in the water! She did not want that to happen. Also the pictures in the room captivated her. She was a huge fan of M.S. Subbalakshmi. She was dying to know who was the one to hang her photo in this house. Was there another fan of MS (as M.S. Subbalakshmi was called by her fans) here?

"My son loves Carnatic music." 

The sudden sound of voice behind her shocked her. It was the old lady now wearing a cotton nightie. She better get going! Don't know how old her son is and what else were his hobbies!!! But she had the problem of not knowing how to said Goodbye and leave! She always faced the problem when she was visiting distant relatives or acquaintances. However close friends were easily manageable. She could just get up and say Goodbye and get out of their houses. But with strangers... she never knew how to take leave of them!

"It's so chill!" the old lady exclaimed, "Right time for some coffee. Let me make some for us."

"No Auntie! It's already getting late, I should head back home soon." What if, the old lady adds something to the coffee that would make her doze off or lose her consciousness? No way! She would not allow that to happen. "Could you please give me a polyethene bag for my books?" she asked. Her wet clothes were beginning to make her cold. She had to leave! 

The old lady came out with two mugs of coffee and a huge bag overflowing with polybags. Who could resist a hot coffee on cold rainy evening? But somewhere at the back of her mind, she faintly remembered something about a sleeping pill. Meanwhile her  lips sipped and she felt the hot liquid flow through her throat spreading warmth into her entire body. She looked again at the photo of MS and wondered how the old lady's son would look like. Would he be tall and handsome? Would he be lean or stout? Would he have a moustache or a beard?

"How old is your son?" she ventured to ask the old lady while she searched for the right bag for her books. Was she feeling dizzy? No! It was all her imagination. When would this power be back! Did she realize that she has been in a strangers house for more than an hour!

"Oh! He is doing his BE course. He is generally home by this time. May be he got stuck in the rain. Let him return, I will ask him to drop you home."

She calculated. He must be more than 5 years younger than her. He was not old enough for her to take any love-interest in him!!! But yes! She had found a perfect bag for her. She stuffed it with her books and wished the old lady goodbye and got out of the house.

Once out of the apartment complex, she was recollecting all her feelings and thoughts that went through while she was with the old lady. How quickly we misjudge people! And how easily someone could fool her! She was safely back home and that's what was needed! All's well that ends well! :)

Knotty Tidbits: 5

Title: Aaloo Jeera

The other day when we ate out at an Indian Restaurant, V loved the Aaloo Jeera that he had ordered. That night itself he googled for the recipe and decided to make it the very next day. But he could not, as there were no aaloos (potatoes) at home. He did not forget to get potatoes during his trip to the grocery store. He selected the perfect little potatoes all the while keeping Aaloo Jeera in mind!

Finally yesterday, he donned the apron and got his hands into Aaloo and Jeera to make Aaloo Jeera! It is one of those rare occasions that I get to taste his food. Dint want to miss it! It came out very spicy, yet we both loved it! Hope I get to see more instances of V as Mr. Chef!

My new machine!!!

Whole of June has been a vacation from my blog! :)

A lot to be said about my past month... If I say that there was no time for blogging then I would be lying... If I say that I did not find any moment worthy enough to be blogged then I would be lying too! :) 

All I can say is: I was getting adjusted to the new life... Physically being so far away from my family... but that got compensated by being with this one single soul who has become my life now. How things change... priorities change... to ensure that the special someone is given the best of everything! My life seems to revolve around this one person as though he is the sun and I am the earth doing rounds around him! :)

Since last Friday, my focus has been shifted to one other thing. My new sewing machine!!! This is the first time I am seeing a machine with a digital display to select the stitch. It has 50 stitches. And you know what's the best thing about it?? The way it stitches the buttonholes. Everything in a single-step... All I have to do is to select the stitch and press the foot controller. I simply love it!

V gifted me this machine and I told myself that the first thing that I would stitch out of this machine would be for V. I have stitched him an apron and he seems to like it...!

I do not have many colors of threads for sewing. I am yet to buy them and I also need a good pair of scissors. Got to buy them soon! :)

So, I have got one more topic to blog about and  bore you (as though I haven't bored you enough!! :D) You may see more of my sewing and crafting projects on my blog soon! :)

Statelessness of Life...

Last half a year has been a roller-coaster ride of emotions and feelings... Love, Hatred, Trust, Betrayal, Care, Understanding, Ruthlessness, Sacrifice, Envy, Joy, Sorrow, Innocence, Anger, Patience, Grief, Excitement, Tolerance, Loneliness, Friendship, Enmity, Contentment, Mischief, Fulfillment...

Every second of life seems to be a mystery taking unexpected twists and turns. Whoa! What a life!

"Are you enjoying?" you may ask. My answer will solely depend on the kind of feelings that I am undergoing at that moment of time. Sometimes I feel like banging my head to the wall, at other times, I feel like running away and at other times, I simply wish the time stops and let this feeling continue...

"You are so unpredictable!" you may comment... I may retort back saying, "What is predictable? At least not this life... Not my life with V!!!"

Aap Jaisa Koi...

Deadly night... Deserted roads...
Chill weather... Chirpy conversation..
Long ride... Lovely sights...
Two souls... One two-wheeler...
Timeless Journey... Priceless Moments...

The icing on the cake???
Singing all the way... together!
All our Favorites from old Hindi Movies...
The best one being...'Aap Jaisa Koi...'
Screaming at the top of our voices.. To be heard above the sound of our vehicle...

What a great time we had!

Even while I write,

Glimpses of that day,

Flash in my mind's eye!

Oh! It's exactly six(read that as 'sweet-six') months since we lost our Bachelor's(Spinster's) degree!
Greetings to us both! :D

A story...

No.. No... This is not a technical post. Sometimes, I just get carried away and publish posts related to the technical stuff that I learn. So, to compensate for the technical post (that was published earlier today), here is a story. I have not yet decided the name of it.

Here is begins:

She was getting back from the library when it all began. What started as a cool breeze and a mild drizzle on a hot summer afternoon, in no time, turned into a continuous downpour accompanied by lightning and thunder... The sky was dark and the visibility low due to the mist covering the windowpanes of the bus. She could hear the pitter-patter of rain drops onto the roof of the bus and see water trickling through the tiny gap between the shut windowpanes.

She wiped the water vapour on the window with her hands and noticed the condition on the roads. There was water everywhere and in some places the underground drainage manholes were overflowing. She noticed many people abandoning their bikes and other two-wheelers and rushing for the shelter of shops and roadside restaurants. The rainwater was flowing from the footpaths onto the roads steadily and in the low-lying areas, the water was knee-deep. At one such area, where they stopped for traffic signal, the water was above the level of the exhaust pipe of a car and the driver had to stop the vehicle, push it to the edge of the road and wait for the water to subside. She hoped that the rain would stop before the bus reached her stop. But no, it continued to rain when she got down the bus. She sprinted for the nearby pavement which was already full of people.

Her wet salwar-kameez stuck to body like second skin and the chiffon duppatta did little to conceive the curves of her body which were already eyebrow-raising due to the wetness making the fabric almost transparent. She cursed herself for wearing such a dress. At the same time she was a little relieved that she had indeed worn a long cotton petticoat underneath, even though she was half-mind that afternoon to wear it in the hot sultry weather.

How weather changes at the drop of a hat!!! Who would have believed that this raining day started out as a hot morning?

"What time is it?" asked the old lady standing next to her.

She checked her watch. It was getting close to 6 O' clock. She told the old lady the time and at the same time was wondering how to save her books from getting soaked in the rain water. The polythene bag that she was carrying did not have any holes. But the water dripping from her arms may seep in through the gaps in the opening of the bag. I have to somehow protect my books she thought.

"Where do you stay, my child?" enquired the same old lady who seemed to be quite interested in her. "Amba Gardens. It is around ten minutes walk from here" she replied.

"I know Amba Gardens. In fact, my home falls on the way to your home. Why don't we start walking back home?"

"But it is raining..."

"We don't know when it's going to stop. It is also getting dark, dear. The more we wait, the more difficult is will be to get back."

She realized that there was truth in what the old lady was telling. May be she should accompany her... And... May be she could stop by at the old lady's place and get another sturdy water-proof cover for my books... Her eyes brightened and a smile spread across her face... Yes! She would surely go along with the old lady.

"Please hold my hand," the old lady begged, "I tend to lose my balance while walking on slippery roads." She held the lady's hand. Muddy muddles were form here and there on the road and at some places the water was above the level of the footpath. The rain continued to lash against their bodies. She shivered in the cold.

They walked in silence. After a couple of minutes of walking, the old lady pointed to a 5-storey building and said, "That's my apartment! I live in the 3rd floor." She had a feeling that she had already been to that apartment. However much she tried, she could not exactly remember who stayed there and in which floor she had been to visit them.

"Thank you very much, my child," exclaimed the old lady, shaking hands with her. "You are welcome! Could I have a polythene bag for my books?" she asked, "They may get soaked due to rain." "Oh sure!"

She followed the old lady into the building, climbing three flight of stairs, for there was no power. The building had an eerie look, especially because of the weather. She was wondering if she had done the right thing to get into this lady's house. Looking back, she realized that the old lady was the one who seemed to take a lot of interest in her. She hoped the lady was not enticing her into the house to take advantage of her. What if the lady was a part of a kidnapping gang? Or worse, a gang that was into selling women for flesh-trade. Oh my God! How thoughts fly!

"Please do come in," offered the lady, after opening the main door of the apartment, "Please make yourself comfortable; I will get a towel for you to dry yourself." She looked around the house. It looked like a two bedroom flat with a huge kitchen and an L-shaped drawing room. She did not sit on the sofa; not wanting to spoil it with her wet clothes. She stood at one place watching the water dripping from the clothes onto the marble floor. The old lady came out of a bedroom with a towel in one hand.

"Take this and use this bathroom adjacent to the wash basin," she pointed, "I can't wait to get out of these wet clothes!"

"It's okay auntie; it's getting late; I have to leave..."

But the lady was already gone and her voice was too low to be heard!!!

She went into the bathroom and wrung the water out of her dupatta and ends of her salwar-kameez. She wiped her arms and face with the towel. She was not going to get out of this dress. No way! Every now and then, she peeked out of the bathroom, to ensure that the main door was still ajar and there was no one else around.

Will be Continued in the next post... Do give your valuable comments... :D