Popcorn

14. A blind eye

An early morning wake up, an almost horrendous encounter with a wild dog and the continuous jesting of his grandfather had surely brightened Harshan's morning. Why not he brighten someone else's morning?

After a heavenly breakfast under the warm sun, Harshan joined Malini, Suchitra and Rachna in the garden to help them in planting saplings.

"Rachu, just this one...What did the big flower say to the little flower?" Harshan asked cheerfully as he skillfully buried the seeds in the soil.

"That it is the last day of Harshan on this Earth." Rachna snarled completely irked by his lame jokes.

"You're no fun, Rachu. It said 'Hey bud!'." He waved his hand at a orange marigold and was greeted with a duh tone from Rachna.

"Harshan, you better leave from here. You're in no way helping me rather pissing me highly." She whined throwing a shovel at him and to her bad luck he caught it.

"Chill beautiful! Try one joke and I will think about it."

Knowing well the evil intentions of Harshan, Rachna definitely didn't want her peaceful morning to be disrupted.

"Okay, what happened when the past, present and future got into an argument?" Rachna arched her eyebrows upwards giving him murderous looks.

"I'm sure it wasn't pleasant." Harshan took a back knee precautionarily.

"Exactly, it got 'tense'. And if you don't shut your big mouth I'm sure I wouldn't back from making the situation 'tense' for you." Rachna clearly stressed on the word tense passing a devilish smile to him who in turn sulked. The grandmothers laughed at their loggerhead grandchildren.

"Harshan, stop troubling her." Suchitra commanded filling the pit.

"Suchi, when we where here Rachu and I used to plant saplings every Saturday." Malini said watering the plants as a sad nostalgic smile graced her face. Despite living together, she didn't get time to spend with her busy granddaughter. She was proud of Rachna who was following her steps but at the same time was worried about how her dear granddaughter was immersing herself into the sea of work. Rachna watched her grandmother from her peripheral vision reminiscing the good old days.

"Finished." Harshan beamed bringing the lost souls to the earth.

******

In the living room, Amitosh and Dheeraj sat opposite to each other with their concentration on the chess board between them. Aditi sat on the sofa beside Dheeraj making a list for the anniversary party in her notepad. Lifting her head from the notepad, she glanced at the chess board and saw Dheeraj making a wrong move.

"Dadaji, don't make that move. Use your rook." Dheeraj moved the rook accordingly and screamed, "Check" giving a hi-fi to Aditi. Amitosh made a disgruntling face at that and called Rakshan for help who was working on his laptop on the table. Shutting his laptop, Rakshan sat next to Amitosh and guided him.

"Dadaji, move your bishop two boxes diagonally backward." Rakshan suggested keenly looking at the board. It was the time for their opponents to groan.

Soon the game moved from Amitosh vs Dheeraj to Rakshan vs Aditi who were showing their powerful moves, devising strategies and smartly countering moves. The grandfathers looked expectantly at the board to know the winner but the tables kept changing with every moves.

As the game was reaching the end, all the four heads were engrossed in the game. Suddenly, a ball settled on the chess board making the chess pieces to fall on the ground. The four players furiously raised their heads to look at the trespasser.