Wait.

Wait for your birthday. Wait for the bus. Wait for Ma to come home and make you an omelette coz you're an inept good for nothing idiot. Wait for the song to get over so you can close MediaPlayer and go to sleep. Wait for an answer. Wait for the evening to come so you can go out and play. Or go to tuitions. Choose whichever applies. Wait for your favourite part of the movie you watch every time they show it on ZMZ. ( And that's many, many times. ) Wait for the monsoons. Wait for the day when you'll say "I love you" and mean it. Do wait. Wait to surprise her with your letter. Wait for the lunch break. Wait for the computer to boot. Hell, wait to be born. Wait to die, coz you know, one day you will. Wait for things to work themselves out. Give up, sometimes. Wait for your sister to leave the bathroom. Wait for your friend to tell you what's wrong even though she said "nothing" when you first asked.

And if you're me, wait for the day when you'll finally have scraped together enough money to fly to Tallinn via Mumbai.

Today.

Icecream, a sandwich and a friend ( sadly inedible ) on the way home.

"The sun is right in front of me, aaaargh!!" "It doesn't matter if the sun is in front or behind you." "Whaa..? The sun won't be in our eyes if we walk the ulta way!" "What a faltu conversation."

"My hands are sticky with drops of vanilla icecream, so I lick my fingers and feel good. My bag is heavy, but I don't mind that sort of thing. My bag looks like something that a kid in class 3 would carry, coz his parents bought it for him and he had no say in it and none of them knew much about being cool anyway. I know a lot about being cool, I just don't practise any of it.

Reminds me of another friend, with whom I'm going to build another world someday. There, we'll ban hair creams and be uncool. Banning combs is a priority. We don't want to spend half our lives combing our hair.

The road is quiet, and our heels click click on the rough road. A man comes up from behind us and hands my friend a drawing of a monkey saying some smartass slogan, which fell from the book she's holding. She stares at the drawing ( she's very proud of it ), then at me, and laughs.

We walk.

"Hey, where are we ?" "I don't know." "Oh oh, I know." "Yah, I know too."

For a moment I am lost in my neighbourhood. Delightful, like very few things ever are.

I buy a sandwich from Bake Club. The guy ( who's supposed to be ) behind the counter enters just as I say, "Hey there's no one in the shop...". I also spot some repulsively pink strawberry pastry. The expressionless guy heats my sandwich and hands it to me with a bent toothpick stuck in it.

Rain falls in almost intangible drops on my sandwich. My friend is thrilled.

"Four o'clock showers! We studied, na, in class 10!"

I look at my watch to see if it is really four o'clock. It's forty minutes past. She laughs again.

Then the road forks and she has to turn right and I have to turn left.

Ciao.

Seems strangely symbolic to me.