Ride on Time

Chapter 60

Mystical Mist.
"This book... where did you get this book?" Shruti asked, reaching for it.
Mitsuo gave it to her. "I bought it from a sweet old lady back in Tokyo. She's Misao's mother."
Shruti looked at him in surprise. "You met her mother?"
"Yeah," Mitsuo nodded, not sure why that was such a big deal. "By the way, how do you know Lady Misao?"
Shree snorted. "Lady Misao? Who's that?"
"The writer's Japanese girlfriend," Mitsuo explained, turning to her. "Shri Mohan personally had that book sent to Misao."
"Mitsuo..." Shree coughed a little before speaking in a low voice. "That's Shri Mohan's sister,"
"Who, Misao?" Mitsuo asked, confused. "That doesn't even make any sense..."
Shree groaned. "Auntie Shruti is Shri Mohan's sister..."
Mitsuo's eyes widened in surprise. He slowly turned to the older woman, who was staring at the first page of the book where Misao had written her name more than twenty years ago.
"Ms. Shruti, Shri Mohan was your brother?" Mitsuo asked in surprise.
Shruti only nodded.
"Oh my, I'm very sorry about what happened to him," Mitsuo bowed deeply. "It was very tragic, his story."
Shruti looked up at him, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as she studied him. "How do you know this?"
"Misao's mother told me when she came to give me these books," Mitsuo explained. "She said it took a lot to finally get rid of them. I was glad since I was looking for them everywhere."
Shruti handed the book back to him. "How did you find out about these books? As far as I know, this one never made it internationally. Only one, The Collision of Two Worlds, made into the international market." She sighed and leaned towards her desk, using a hand to support her forehead. "Poor Shri... he never got to see his book go global..."
"We took The Collision of Two Worlds for literature back in secondary," Shree attempted to lighten the mood, motioning towards the book in Mitsuo's hand. "This one's very good too."
"And you damaged it..." Shruti frowned at the foreigner.
Mitsuo shook his head. "I received it like this. Maybe Misao had something to do with it..."
Shruti heaved a sigh, her gaze travelling to a frame whose photo can't be seen by the youngsters. "Ninety-eight was our best and worst year. Everything just happened so fast, it was like Shri left in a rush, following Misao when she left too."
Shree awkwardly sat there, desperately trying to find away to change the subject. She suddenly got an idea and dug in her bag, pulling out a book as well.
"Auntie." Shree called, a slight smirk on her face. "I wanna show you something."
The older woman turned to her, a questioning look on her face. "What is it?"
Shree grinned and handed the book to her, back facing up. "Recognise that face?"
Shruti looked at the picture for a moment and then at Mitsuo. She let out a light gasp as she realised they were the same person and smiled. "You're the writer of this book?"
Mitsuo turned slightly red. "Yes... I was surprised to see... Shree reading it the other day and approached her."
"And that's when I dropped my kanzashi and ran away," the younger woman chuckled. "I didn't know he was just trying to return it."
"Kanzashi..." Shruti murmured thoughtfully. "I got a few of those when we went in Japan. I wonder where they went... maybe Madhavi took them..."
"Oh, Madhavi," Shree smiled at the mention of Shruti's older daughter. "How is she? Been some time since I last saw her."
"She's fine," Shruti smiled. "Her exam's this year. Very hectic time..."
Mitsuo once again felt left out when they started talking about Madhavi, whom he had no clue about, awkwardly sitting there as he fiddled with his Manji.
And all mentions of this Pongal dance disappeared.
The digression got so far that he eventually got up and gave Shruti a polite bow.
"I'm afraid I must leave," Mitsuo said. "I have something important to do."
"Eh, wait lah," Shree said in a slightly sad tone. "What's so important about eating nasi kerabu? Wait lah, I also want to come."
Mitsuo looked at her in surprise. "Wow, is that colloquial?"
"What's that?" Shruti asked, not knowing what it actually meant.
"Local informal dialect, basically Manglish for us," Shree smirked as she explained to the older woman. She then turned back to Mitsuo. "Sit down lah. We go together after this."
Shruti started laughing. "The two of you... this reminds me of what my brother did in Japan."
"Brother as in Shri Mohan?" Mitsuo asked eagerly. "What was he like?"
Shruti frowned for a moment before taking the framed photograph from her desk and handing it to him. It was a picture of two people, a young man and a young woman, both clad in traditional summer kimono. The girl was wearing a red floral yukata with a white flower kanzashi in her bun while the guy was wearing a blue and white striped one and a pair of thin-framed glasses. For some reason, the guy seemed strangely familiar to him.
"This was him, with me. We took this in Japan, back in '98."
Mitsuo nodded and handed it back to her.
"We were so excited, especially Shri," Shruti went on. "He knew all the Japanese food names and would point them out one by one and explain, I knew none, and he really loved Japanese culture. It's not surprising that he fell in love with a geisha girl."
"Misao is a geisha girl?!" Mitsuo gasped in awe. "Oh wow!"
"Which part of Japan are you from?" Shruti asked.
"I was born and raised in Kyoto," Mitsuo answered. "The Imperial Capital."
Shruti nodded. "We went to Kyoto too, Higashiyama."
"Ah yes, Higashiyama," Mitsuo nodded. "You went to Gion?"
"Yes," Shruti nodded.
Shree snorted. "Higashiyama? Hard Candy Mountain?"
There was silence at this.
"What did you say?" Mitsuo asked, confused.
"Doesn't Higashiyama roughly translate to Hard Candy Mountain?" Shree smirked. "Like... Higashi means hard candy and Yama is mountain, right?"
Shruti turned to Mitsuo. "Is this true?"
Mitsuo nodded. "Haven't thought about it that way, but yeah. It's true. The actual meaning is East Mountain, but Higashi also means hard candy so it's technically true."
Shruti smirked, shaking her head at Shree. She seemed like she suddenly remembered something. "Oh my gosh... I forgot... what did you come here for?"
Shree quickly started telling her about the Pongal dance performance. Shruti nodded and they both started discussing the dances, with the older woman occasionally lapsing into Tamil.
Mitsuo only heard snippets like Bharatanatyam and odissi, which he recognised to be forms of traditional Indian dances.
"Okay, I think I can do that," Shree finally said, getting up. "Thanks so much, Auntie." She smiled sheepishly. "And sorry for wasting your time..."
Shruti quickly shook her head, coming over with her arms extended. "It's okay, it was actually quite fun to talk to you guys." She hugged Shree and pulled away before turning to Mitsuo, giving him a nod. "It was nice to talk to you too. Brought back so many old memories."
Mitsuo smiled graciously and bowed. "It was a pleasure talking to you too, Ms. Shruti."
Shruti extended her right hand. Mitsuo shook it with a smile.
Shruti's smile faltered and her hand trembled in Mitsuo's grasp. Her eyes welled up with tears as she quickly pulled her hand away.
"I'm sorry, I- I got meeting," Shruti mumbled, returning to her chair. "Thanks for coming, Shree, I'm glad you came." She looked at Mitsuo and attempted a smile. "Thanks for coming too. Talking to you was really nice..."
Mitsuo nodded awkwardly and left with Shree.