Ride on Time

Chapter 31

"Ma!" Suganthi almost jumped out of her skin when the two barged into the kitchen as she was making lunch.
"What lah, I cooking, right?" Suganthi scolded. "Let me cook lah."
Shri grinned and rubbed a box in her face. Suganthi eventually got annoyed and ripped it off his hands to take a look.
"What's this?" Suganthi asked. "Present ah? For me? What, are you trying bribe me?"
Shri sighed. "Ma. Misao got present for all of us for Deepavali."
Suganthi's eyes widened. "Oh?"
She asked Shruti to watch the curry and took the box to the kitchen table. She had trouble untying it and started looking around for the scissors but Shri opened it for her instead.
He got it open and turns out, it was a beautiful ceramic bowl.
"Uyooo..." Suganthi gasped.
"It's a chawan," Shri said, reading Misao's note.
"This one? Cawan ah?" Suganthi said in surprise. "This one bowl lah."
Shri snorted. "Yeah, Ma. It's a tea bowl."
"So cup lah?" Suganthi said. "Very nice..."
To their dismay, she opened one of the overhead cabinets and placed it among other bowls. The siblings looked at each other and sighed.
"She won't use," Shri sighed.
"Confirm, for sure she won't use," Shruti shook her head, looking away from the wok. "Ma, use lah. Pity Misao, right?"
"It's so pretty, how you want me to use?"
The two sighed and started looking for their father who was out with their brother to get the necessary things for the prayers that took place the next day. Shruti decided to continue her show while Shri decided to resume his book.
Writing his book.

Shridhar and Siddharth soon came and Shri excitedly ran down to greet them.
"Pa! Anneh! Misao sent you gifts for Deepavali!" Shri announced.
"Who's Misau?" Siddharth asked without a clue.
"What she gave?" Shridhar asked, seemingly not hearing his older son.
"I don't know," Shri said, handing him a box. "I didn't open yet."
Shridhar untied it and to his surprise, it was a wooden lunchbox. He read the label to see what it was. "Wappa bento box. Wah... fully wooden some more."
"This one's for you," Shri smiled and handed the rectangular package to Siddharth.
Siddharth frowned and opened it, revealing an ukiyo-e woodblock print of the Great Wave Off Kanagawa.
"Wah, nice lah," Shridhar remarked. "She bought something for everyone ah?"
"Yeah," Shri nodded. "For Anneh also even though she never saw him."
Siddharth looked like he was about to say something but Suganthi interrupted them.
"Wah, she bought for Sid-boy also?" Suganthi said in surprise.
"Yeah, Ma," Shri chuckled and started making his way upstairs.
Siddharth frowned and went to his room.

"Mohan, can I ask you something?" Siddharth said as soon as his brother sat down to eat.
"What, Anneh?" Shri politely said, being in a very good mood tonight.
"Who sent all that stuff just now?" Siddharth asked.
Shri took a sip of water before speaking. "Misao. A girl I met in Japan."
"Oh..." Siddharth nodded as if understanding. "Japanese girl?"
"Yeah."
"Is she pretty?"
Shri was starting to know where this was going. "Very. Geisha girl."
"I see..." Siddharth said before turning to his father. "Pa. Any new girls?"
Shridhar inwardly groaned. "Not yet lah, boy."
"Then you found girl for him already?" Siddharth said, much to their surprise. "Japanese girl some more. Why, cannot find one for me also ah? This is why you never let me come?"
Shruti looked at her parents before turning to her oldest brother. "Anneh, you're the one that said you don't want to come."
"Doesn't matter!" Siddharth spat. "Still you can find for me one girl also, right?"
"Anneh, it wasn't like that, we met by coincidence!" Shri chimed in. "She works in the restaurant the meeting was held in! No one played matchmaker for me. I found her myself."
Shruti smirked. "Yeah lah, he jealous. All the girls he find all so idiotic. Shri find nice girl, for sure burning, right?"
"Shruti!" Suganthi scolded, her eyebrows furrowed.
"What, then what he said was correct?" Shruti pointed out.
"Go to your room," Suganthi instructed, pointing to the steps.
"But I haven't finished eating yet!" Shruti pointed at her food.
"Go eat in your room," Suganthi said again.
Shruti frowned and got up, shaking the rice off her hands on the plate, and stormed off with a scowl. Shri sighed, seeing how his only backup had left.
"Pa, it's not fair! You find him a nice girl, then what about me? See? I'm already twenty-seven and I still don't have ponnu. But you already found one for him?!" Siddharth went on. "He twenty-four years old only."
Shri frowned and got up. He abandoned his plate and walked away.

"Shruti?" Shri said as he entered his sister's open door.
"Why he so mean and why Ma and Pa always support him?" Shruti shouted, her voice trembling with tears. "What only we did to him, just because he don't have girlfriend, he have to talk like this ah?!"
Shri sighed and sat down next to her. "What to do? He's the oldest, what."
Shruti wiped her eyes with her left hand and continued eating with her right. "Saw or not, how they just sitting? Ma even worse, send me away some more."
"Don't cry lah," Shri put an arm around her. "You know about him, right?"
Shruti sniffed, wiping snot off her nose with her wrist as she ate. "You never eat ah?"
Shri shook his head. "How you want me to eat when he sitting and talking like that?"
"Nah," Shruti handed her plate to him, much to his surprise. "Eat some."
Shri refused, gently pushing the plate away. "You eat first, I'll eat something later."
He decided to leave since his sister kept insisting for him to eat, sacrificing her own meal.

Shri sat at his desk, typing out the story he had written by hand in that large notebook of his, Lazy Night by Makoto Matsushita playing from his Panasonic hi-fi. He found the album very relaxing and was very glad that Misao sent it to him. He also made it a point to give her a call as soon as he was done typing his written work.
"Mohan?" He sighed and turned around to see his father come in with a plate of curry and bread.
"Pa?" Shri greeted.
"Did you eat anything?" Shridhar asked.
Shri shook his head. "I hadn't even served myself yet."
"I know," Shridhar nodded. "Nah, eat this."
Shri frowned at the bread and curry and shook his head. "Don't want lah, Pa. Not hungry."
Shridhar sighed and put the plate down next to the typewriter before seating himself on the bed.
"I know, your brother can be idiotic, but please lah. Don't starve yourself like this. Don't go to sleep with an empty stomach."
Shri frowned. "Is it that wrong for me to get a girlfriend before him? What does he care?"
Shridhar shrugged. "You know your brother, right?"
"I do... but it just isn't fair that he gets to be a total jerk while we have to take the fall," Shri frowned. "Why's that?"
"Because he... he's like that," Shridhar sighed. "You have seen what he does if he doesn't get his way, right?"
Shri frowned. How could he forget the scene he made when Shridhar refused to buy him a new boombox? He was only twelve back then and badly wanted one since his friend had one. Siddharth suddenly 'fell sick' had a 'nosebleed' and begged his father to get him a new boombox as if it was his last wish.
And what happened after he obtained said boombox? His illness flew away.
And as for the boombox...
It now rested in the master bedroom since Siddharth abandoned it. Shridhar now claimed it as his own.
"Yeah, I've seen," Shri frowned. "He used to beat me up when he didn't get his way too." He smirked. "He loved the black eye I gave him."
"I knew he started it, that's why I punished both of you," Shridhar shook his head. "The two of you, I swear. You're such a handful."
Shri snorted. "Yeah, we were terrible back then, weren't we?"
Shridhar laughed and pointed at the plate on the table. "Eat your dinner. Don't sleep with an empty stomach."
Shri sighed and begrudgingly started eating. Shridhar smiled, ruffled his hair and left the room to go back downstairs, leaving him with This Is All I Have For You by Makoto Matsushita playing in the background.

Another thing I might've forgotten to mention is that if the characters suddenly start speaking in fluent English, it means the conversation isn't spoken in English. Their dialogue is a translation from a different language like Japanese, Tamil, or Malay. This is because we Malaysians, this is the case with my family at least, speak in informal colloquial Manglish when we're at home, but speak our best English to others. Yeah, this applies to me too lol. I didn't realise this before but yeah. I subconsciously do this.
This does not apply if a Japanese character speaks to a Malaysian one. This is because... they both speak in English with each other lol.