At BhrikutiMandap

[NaNoWriMo Day 7]

[Warning: This is poorly written and completely unedited. I just want to get a novel written soon.]

Raul took a big whiff of air.  He smelled roasted peanuts and raw grass.

It was a lazy Tuesday morning, and Raul was strolling in BhrikutiMandap. Tuesdays morning are generally not any lazier than any other days of the week. But this was winter in Kathmandu, and this was BhrikutiMandap. The city went there to be lazy. The large field was littered with remains of roasted peanuts and oranges. The place was dotted with large circles of students from nearby campuses. The air resounded with laughter and impassioned voices. Snuggling couples were seated at the edges of the field, sharing ice cream and cotton candy.

"We used to play cricket here, as kids," Raul said, "This crowd will leave at about 2pm, and there's some time before the evening crowd comes in. We came in all the way from Baidyakhana and Anamnagar. You could hit all the sixers you heart desired, without having to sneak into other people's houses and fields. And you never needed to be afraid of breaking people's window." He laughed. "But one day, we actually broke a window, of that building with soft-serve Ice-cream parlour. The one with Softie ice-cream," he said. They were in the inner edge of the field. "Shit. Damn. Damn. Look at that, ohh maan, this is too much. Look at that! Hahahaha, shiiit! Did you see that? We did that! Twenty years ago! And they haven't fixed it yet, hahaha," Raul said, pointing at a window-pane with a broken top half on a single-storey building. "Nothing changes hai? Look at all the buildings and people, and cars, so much more people now. Houses are everywhere. But in a deeper level, nothing has changed. People are the same, culture is the same. Everything is the same. Wow." he aid. His eyes had welled up.

She grasped his hand, clasping his fingers between hers. She rubbed her cheeks against his shoulder. "I must have been five at that time. While you were playing cricket here, I was riding on goats, and taking them to herd," she said. She smiled. She gazed into nothingness. "...The village air was so cool. You could smell the flowers and the forest in the air, so fresh. Near home, you could smell dung and burned dung-wood, haha," she said, and taking in a big gulp of air. "The water was so sweet. Even now I remember that vividly. But the village has changed too. So many things have happened since," she said. There was a long pause.  "Come, I'll buy you blue cotton candy," she said, dragging him. They walked in silence, their hands held tightly. She turned her head to him, and kissed his cheek. They walked in silence. He sighed. She sighed. They kept walking.

"In the summer, we would run back to our houses, and rush to take off our cloths. Boys, girls, all of us, jumping naked in the river," she said, looking across the table at him. He was staring intently at the cotton candy. She chortled. "They make such a big deal out of that now, in the city. Kids should have fun, at least," she said. "And, and...," she trailed off. He was still engrossed in the candy.

A football came rolling by. "Dai, please throw us the football," came a shouting voice from far away. Raul got up. "Just a moment, I'll show them," he said. He dribbled the ball to an imaginary opponent. After running after it for a bit, he kicked it high up in the air. The children ran to intercept the ball from the air. It landed short, right about where they had been originally. "Thaaaanks daaai," someone shouted.

He sat on the chair next to her. "You were telling the story of swimming naked in the river," he reminded her.

"Yeah. You looked like you were not feeling well. What are you thinking," she said.

"Remembering old things makes me sad. I miss the old things, and hate it that we can't go back," he said. "Also, embarrassed a bit. Swimming naked with guys, who knows where the story was goin to go," he said with a slight smirk.

"Hahaha, I didn't realize you were such a shyster. You shouldn't be embarrassed about such a small...okay I won't make you shy anymore. Besides, we were kids -- what can kids even do, you know?" she said. She looked around, and stuffed a large piece of candyy into her face. "There was a guest lecturer in college yesterday," she said, "he was really fat. How does someone gain so much weight? How much rice do you have to eat to be that heavy? Do fat people go to toilet less? I hadn't seen such a fat person before."

"Oh I think I have seen that," he said. He got up and walked around the table with his legs spread wide, as if he had a large ballon-suit on. His arms were spread apart like a low-energy zombie. "Is this how he walked? I used to be fat, and this is how I used to walk. He must have walked like this right, right," he said.

She laughed. "JPT! You're such a jokker, yaar! You know, at first you appear to be such a serious person. As in, like everyone should respect you types. But in reality, you're such an airhead. Haawaa maanche! What kind of person walks like that? JPT!" she said.

"You don't believe me, but it's really true! I used to weigh as much as a motorcycle. When I needed to check my weight, I would have to go to a mechanic, and get into the large base -- the one they use to weigh cars and motorcycles," he said, maintaining a straight face.

"Ohh really, so what would you do if you wanted to find your weight, but you didn't have a mechanic with advanced machinery," she asked, rolling her her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm really good you asked! That's a really good question, did you know that? I've told this to so many people, and they just don't put much thought into it, but clearly you've thought about this a lot, and are asking good question. So the question is a good one, and you wouldn't bee-lieeve how good the solution to that is--", he kept going.

"--seems like you're just saying random bs before you can think of something, you know--", she said.

"No no, I'll tell you now. So if I didn't have a mechanic nearby, I would go to a kabaadi's junkyard, you know places where they weigh all the Iron with huge scales, and get on those. And then the kabadis put large pieces of Iron as big as me, and that's how they knew how heavy I was. It felt like I was on a swing," he said.

"Hahaha, so you're saying you were as heavy as Iron? You're such a guffadi maan, you don't look like it, but you're suuch a guffadi, I would never have guessed. I bet you peed your pants all the time as a kid, because that's what happens to people who lie," she said punching him on his shoulder.

"Ohh, yeah, yeah, that's an entirely different story. They used to make me fill up swimming pools for the fertilizer factory, and I even got paid for that. I'll tell you that story a different day okay, because you'll respect me so much, we can't hang out all the time because it will be awkward. You know there are many benefits to lying, unlike what people generally think about liars," he said, still maintaining a straight face.