Comedy of Confusions

8. Minax: When it Rains it Pours

Minax stood under an awning by the road waiting for the rain to stop. It was late in the evening when she had wrapped up work and started on her Rajdoot when the sky opened up. She had pulled over and sought the shelter, not far from her office. She also answered her mother's call and assured her that she was not stupid enough to ride in the rain.  Her Lady Luck must have been smiling. Right next door was an eatery putting out a fresh batch of pakoras.

She quickly grabbed an order of mixed pakoras and munched on them as the rain intensified a torrent submerging the lowest of steps in front of her. But hot mirchi pakoras compensated for everything. Moments later it was a batch of bread pakoras and the guy at the eatery hollered to her asking if she would love some. She smiled and got one. Bread.. the strange story of bread came back to her, one that featured a certain Made in America superhero and his quest for some mythical bread.

She had accidentally overheard him the other day requesting someone for a certain sandwich recipe. That was not usual, many people love to cook and being away from home he might have wanted to recreate familiar foods. What was strange was the number of sandwiches he tried and discarded without eating more than a single bite. Sandwiches in garbage, sandwiches on table and more sandwiches on the way. It was very likely that he had tried pretty much all sandwiches available in 5 km radius before seeking help. She had pretty much concluded that he had some kind of OCD, a strange bread obsession.  She checked with Cheney, her Guru for all things food. And he had suggested she call up a childhood friend of theirs who now ran a bakery. A bunch of samples were secured and thankfully only one of them ended up in the garbage. Sure she was very particular about her food. She liked her biriyani from a certain restaurant, she had her rules around food like the temperature of the food among other things. But this story was of a different league. It was very hard to imagine that this person possibly went hungry with a glut of food right outside the door and could so casually toss food into garbage.

As she waited for the piping hot bread pakora to cool she spotted a man trying to drag himself in the torrent of flood water. What a stupid thing it was to walk in rain. The pavement was uneven at best and flood water made it impossible to walk safely. She hollered but the rain drowned the loudest of her voice. She waved at him but could not catch his attention. She left her pakoras on the counter, closed her helmet visor and ran into the rain without a thought and grabbed the man by his wrist.

The man, caught by surprise, almost jumped like a frightened kitten and resisted.

Minax lifted the visor of her helmet "It is me"

"Suhasini" Krish mumbled, giving up his resistance and followed her.

"Watch out for the step" Minax warned him as they wadded in knee deep water to the safety of the awning.

The man next to her tried to futilely wipe off the rain water on his face, his white shirt stuck to torso revealing a sinewy runner's body. Minax thanked her stars for the windbreaker she was wearing over her light colored tee. Ah! On that thought, she had to thank Sam too. It is Sam that got her to carry a windbreaker in her backpack all the time. On that note she got her pakoras back, lifted her visor and got back to eating. The crunch and the smell of the pakora must have caught his attention and he looked at the pakoras intently.

It was awkward, for she started eating without offering him. A small voice in her head justified her action. Not that he would eat this stuff given his obsession. But well, her parents did not raise her like this. She stood there continuing her love affair with her pakora even as another voice conflicted with her action.

Her thoughts broke when she noticed Krish watching her eat. The evil imp in her head thought of feeding him super hot mirchi pakoras. That would be a spicy revenge, maybe send him packing back to NYC. She giggled silly at the thought but stopped when she noticed him continuing to watch her pack of pakoras.