Hamesha, Yours!

-8-

"Welcome to my playroom!"

"Play room?" Nandini asked bewildered keeping her wide eyes fixed on Harshad's glowing face.

"Yeh playroom! Is mein itni hairat kya?" he questioned but soon paused with his eyes wider that the round ones Nandini had. Seeing that may be he had tuned into her interpretation at the same time, Nandini bit her lips and looked everywhere but at him. Harshad coughed off the thoughts remained tight lipped. Unknowingly, a sweet place that was filled with balloons, crayons, colored paper, Twister and uncountable puzzles was turned into something else that was beyond words. An awkward silence had already settled in and Nandini had faced palmed herself for letting it in.

"Acha hi!" she cleared her throat,"It looks fun!"

Harshad looked at her again and cringed after all words without meaning and kept out-of-context could mean a lot and very little at the same time.

Nandini stammered a bit and tried to cover up, "I-I-I mean this room has very interesting things, you see!" she tried to state in obviousness and innocence, throwing her hands in front and dropping her shoulders playfully.

Harshad gulped the embarrassment down, "I-It's not helping particularly, Nandini!"

"I see that", she fumbled and roamed around the place quietly observing the room of filled with arts-y stuff.

"So what do you do here?"

"Anything but what we have been discussing!" Harshad chuckled but continued on in an upbeat manner, "Well, I have this just like for fun- a little treasure full of old-school kid board games, colors and paper and paints!" He picked up a glass and some chart paper and exclaimed enthusiastically, "You wanna play a little game, do you?"

"Yeh sure!" Nandini smiled and sat down at the poka-dot rug that was spread in the center.

"So, here is some paper, of course, and some scissors. The game goes that we right random things on the paper, fold them, shuffle them and then pull out a slip one-by-one and explain what and why we wrote it!"

"Sounds mehanat but interesting."

"Great! Time-paas hi toh, toh pakard!" Harshad gave her the scissors and picked up a paper in his own hand.

"Any color?"

"What ever you fancy!"

Music played in the background and the zips and zaps of cutting and folding paper consumed the two. In this merry abode when a hour and two passed by, neither of them knew but soon they were done with the big-bowl and were ready to pluck out the papers that held beginnings and endings to stories.

"So first up is" Harshad created a faked build-up and shook the bowl before pulling out a slip, "Tug-of-war!Tug of war?"

"Tug-of-war!" Nadini smiled "I wrote that!"

"Explain then!"

"So, it was long ago when I was a kid and stayed in Mangalore. We also had a house like this with a small play room and it's just a memory when me, amma, appa played a tug of war!"

"That sounds fun and lucky to have such a thing!" Harshad's voice saddening at the end.

"A thing as in a family!"

"Yeh, a family!" He muttered but then brought a boom in his voice, "So who won?"

"Aha! The game hasn't ended till now! It continues on just in a different way!"

"Intrigued and deep, child! Tug of war of hearts and minds!" Harshad raised his hands as if blessing Nandini. She broke into fits of laughter and pulled out another chit.