The Umbrella Partner

Chapter 1 - The Social Studies teacher

I looked at the long queue of vehicles which moved forward at a pace of one centimetre per minute. There were about a hundred vehicles ahead of us and a hundred more behind us, stuck in traffic. My friend, who was traveling with me, was enjoying the blabbering of Radio Jockeys on FM radio. Not even a single song was played since we started our journey. Exactly why they thought we would want to listen to them talking for twenty-five minutes in a half-an-hour show, was a mystery to me. 

The driver of the vehicle standing right next to mine, started pressing horn ferociously. The poor guy seemed to think that it would miraculously clear the traffic.

I sighed. "Situations like these make me wish for a flying car."

"You know what the main reason for the traffic is?" He asked me. Without giving me time to think, he answered his own question. "People like you."

"How?" I frowned.

"Why do you need a car for two people? You could have just brought your bike."

"And where exactly would you have kept your luggage? On your head?" I asked. He chuckled in response. "Nevertheless, you are right. We shouldn't use vehicles when we don't need them. I travel short distances by walk."

Several minutes later, the clouds finally decided that they have troubled us enough. The rain stopped. It took us another hour to reach his hotel. After making sure that he settled down, I gave him the list of all tourist spots he would be covering the following day. 

I returned home by 2 pm in the afternoon. Owning a tea estate and a resort, allowed me to come back home from workplace whenever I wished to. Sometimes I would stay there working until midnight. Some other times I would return home by 12 noon, making my friends jealous. It's true that my life lacked stability. But I was used to it.

I was feeling lazy. And for lazy people like us, God created noodles. I may not have salt and sugar in my kitchen. But I made sure that I had packets of instant noodles in abundance. Always.

The packet said two minutes. But who were they kidding? It took more than ten minutes. I slumped on the sofa and started eating. I could feel someone glaring at me, disapprovingly. I turned around to see that it was my parents. From their photo frame. "Don't look at me like that. I don't have the patience to cook now." 

I changed into comfortable clothes and lay on the sofa, watching TV. After an hour or so, I heard the doorbell ring. I knew who it was. My neighbour whom I lovingly called Santa Claus aunty. "Why don't you shave your beard?" She asked me as soon as I opened the door. "You look like a roadside Romeo." She handed me a bowl of homemade snacks.

"Thank you, aunty."

"I'm going out. Will return at 8 pm. Go and pick Shravan up." She ordered. "No bike. Go by walk." She added before I could ask. According to her, her grandson was too young to sit on a bike. I agreed.

I went inside to collect my phone and wallet. I debated whether I should carry an umbrella. My seniors once mocked me so badly during my first year, for carrying an umbrella, that I instantly started hating them. Not the seniors. The umbrellas.

I locked the door and walked towards the school, empty-handed.

---***---

"You lost another eraser?" I asked incredulously. "This is the fifth one this year." 

"No one can use an eraser completely. They just disappear" said Shravan.

He had a point. I never used a pencil-eraser to its full potential. I always lost them when they reached half the original size. 

I walked towards the stationary shop and bought a new eraser, when Shravan's eyes fell on a heart-shaped sharpener. The price said 25 rupees. "Buy an ordinary one." I told him.