The grey canvas

✒Something from the past (1)

Nitara:

"Careful." I shouted as the cab took an ugly turn around Carol Bagh.

"Sorry mam." The driver apologised and vouched to be careful from henceforth.

I heaved a sigh of relief looking at the lunch box in my lap. Had the daal makkhani inside that box, spilled, I would have literally ripped him apart!

This daal was just not the gateway of patching up with Raima. It was MY cooking, the only job which I craved to do but hardly got an opportunity to do.
All thanks to Mr. Dev Bose!!!

Sometimes I badly wished I could tell him that his kitchen was not going to accompany him to heaven after his death!
But whatever it was, the kitchen was really really important to me. Its becoz it had witnessed my first cooking experience!

First cooking.

Dev's birthday.

Memories.

Pains.

Terms and conditions.

More memories.

Love....

3 years ago-

"Arey memsaab... aap yaha kyu ayi? Apko kuch chahiye tha toh aap mujhe bata deti. Mai woh paucha deti na aapke room tak!" Jamna bai screamed in my ears.

"Chill Jamna. I am all okay now. I swear." I pinched the skin of my neck and smiled in assurance.

"No no. You are not okay." She replied in an animated tone with her broken english and shook her head from extreme left to extreme right.

"I swear I am okay. Just look at me." I said as I made her look at me from head to toe. "I am much better now. Thats why I could walk upto here. Don't you understand that?"

"Kya chahiye apko?" Her direct question flew to my direction.

"I want to cook."

"Aap mujhe naukri se nikaalna chahti hai? Mereko pehle hi bata deti na memsaab. Woh kya kehte hai aplog? Resin?? Haan.. wahich kar deti mai. Iske liye baat itna ghuma fira ke bolna kyu?" She asked with a straight face.

"Haan?" I scrunched my eyebrows as I tried to decipher whatever she said. Two good minutes of thinking and then I understood that she was talking about resigning. I chuckled slightly. "Thats 'resign' Jamna, not 'resin'...." I corrected her. She gave a look as if she was least bothered with the right word, which she really was and I continued- "why are you thinking like that? Mai tumhe job se kyu nikalungi??"

"Aap nahi, saab nikalenge... jab unhe pata chalega ki aj ka khana aapne banaya! ..... sir ne istrict instructions diya hai na aapko bed se ek kadam bhi na hilne ke liye?"

"Haan tumhare sir ne instruction diya hai but I can't follow that! I can't stay hooked in bed for 24*7... c'mon Jamna, why don't you understand ki mai bhi insan hi hu. And I am not paralysed yet! Chal sakti hu mai. Itna movement allowed hai..."

"Toh aap mujhe naukri se nikaal hi dengi?" Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke.

"Aisa kuch nahi hoga. Trust me. Your sir won't raise a voice on you even for once.... Ab jaldi se bolo toh tumhare sir ko kya pasand hai?" I tried to cheer her up but she one resoluted soul and she argued back-

"Aap thik se chal bhi nahi pa rahi. aur fir aag ke pass itne der rehna..."

"I will be okay. I promise. Ab batao please Dev ko kya kya pasand hai?" I said cutting her midway. She sighed helplessly and rubbed her toe over the floor for sometime.