Osi Gaaji & Bajji Maami
Disclaimer: The events mentioned
in this story is based on imagination and is definitely not based on any living
person(s). The author declines to be drawn into any defamation case for writing
a work of pure fiction. All places, names and dates have been changed to avoid
offending anyone.
Explainer:
1) Osi gaaji : a slang from street
cricket, where a player gets a turn to bat out of turn, also a freebie or a
undeserved gift
2)Bajji : a food item made of
batter, chillies and banana pith- hot and very spicy, usually eaten with
dipping sauces.
The other day a friend of mine
called me up and said "Machan, it’s been a long time since we met, why don’t
you come home this Saturday for dinner?" and he messaged me his address.
So early on Saturday evening I drove down to Adyar, to one of the poshest
apartments I have seen. The security guard verified the flat number I was
visiting before even allowing my car inside. Once parked at a place marked for
visitors vehicles, i took the lift up to the third floor and before i rang the
doorbell of flat 3-D gave a missed call on my friends mobile just to confirm
that I was at the right flat.
The door opened almost immediately
and my friend stood there clad in a lungi and just that (bare
chested)."Come in, come in, da" he said inviting me inside. We went
in and he made me sit beside him on one of those over-upholstered couches where
you feel like you are sinking inside and he started talking about the IPL match
going on in one of the biggest flat screen televisions I have seen outside
showrooms. That monstrous OLED TV set took up almost the entire wall opposite
the couch we sat and it was like having your own personal theater inside the
living room. Must have cost a bomb to buy, i guessed. So someone's making very
good money, posh flat, big tv, the works.
Meanwhile he called out in a loud
voice to someone inside "------, bring some hot bajji di. My friend has
come". I could see the remains of a large plate of pakoras (near empty)
placed on the table opposite the couch. So my friend had already been on it for
some time I guessed. We spent a
convivial ten minutes or so watching the IPL match and chatting while a
pleasant smell of bajji's being deep friend wafted in from what I took to be
the kitchen. Based on that distracting smell itself, my tongue was salivating
to taste what promised to be real good bajjis.
And so it proved, the bajji's were
excellent in taste when they came. The lady who came out from the kitchen
looked the typical suburban housewife, clad in what looked like an old nighty
with a two year child perched on one hip and a big plate of bajjis and some
coconut chutney and after murmuring a hurried "hi" to me left the
plate on the table opposite me and went back inside the kitchen to tend to
whatever she had left sizzling on the grill, dinner for us, if i could guess. I
was surprised that my friend had not even offered to keep the child with him as
she cooked and i mentioned it to my friend in an aside.
He guffawed and said that the kid wouldn’t
leave its mothers side for even half a minute and would cry and make a big fuss
if he took it off her. Meanwhile the lady of the house had finished cooking and
had gone inside to change and she came out freshened up and clad in a sari
looking very smart and pretty that you wouldn’t guess that it was the same
person who had been in that old nighty. Standing before us she said in an
educated and accented English "Dinner's ready. On the table. For whenever
you want". My friend looked at me and saw that I had not even finished
half my share of bajjis and started to decline, but i hurriedly added that I
have a long drive ahead of me as I have to go back halfway across the city to
my house and so would be better off I could finish dinner early and start soon.
So the lady led us inside to the
dining room and served us dinner. My friend apologized for the fare on the
table and said "I hope you don’t mind, she is pure vegetarian and cooks
only vegetarian stuff". I said I didn’t mind as i too didn’t eat non-veg
on Saturdays. That said, the food was excellent and more than once I
complimented her on her excellent cooking skills. She beamed at that praise for
it seemed to me that my friend didn’t appreciate much her culinary skills even
though he sat around the house polishing off plate after plate of her cooking.
After a decent time interval,
spent sitting on the same couch in front of the TV and this time with the lady
joining us too with the child on her lap, I demurred about it turning late and started to make my
farewells. My friend looked genuinely sorry to see me go and suddenly
(impulsively) said "why don’t you stay for the night and go tomorrow? Tomorrow
is Sunday, so you won’t have to go the clinic also, right? You can get up a bit
late and have breakfast with us and go home". I was touched by his
spontaneous generosity but refused by telling him "I can’t impose on your
hospitality so much. You know how rare it is for people like us not to work on Saturday
evenings, so i thoroughly enjoyed this day chatting with you but i really must
go home now for I have to get up early and take care of a lot of things
tomorrow".
So both of them, he still in his
lungi and bare bodied torso and she in her sari with the child ever present on
the hip, came right up with me to the lift door to bid me farewell and as I
pressed the button to call up the lift and was waiting for it to arrive at
their floor, I told my friend "you know we should meet more often. It was
such fun meeting and talking with you today in person unlike all the facebook
messenger chats we have had online. And I shouldn't forget to thank her too,
her cooking was fantastic today". Both of them looked mighty pleased at
the genuine compliment and my friend said "You should come down south to
my town sometime. I will take you around and show you all the tourist spots.
And you can meet my wife and children. My wife cooks very good non veg
stuff"
I asked him for forms sake
"So when are you returning home?" and he said "i am going back
tomorrow night by bus from Koyambedu. Her husband only returns from his trip on
tuesday?" he made it a question to the lady beside him and she nodded and
added "yes, my husband always takes a week on his business trips. I am
going to be lonely after he also leaves tomorrow night, that’s why I am asking
him to stay and go on Monday night but he doesn’t listen to me at all". My
friend smiled at that and said "well, work calls and I cant stay here too
long, even my wife, trusting as she is might get suspicious" and he winked
at me as the lift doors opened and I left the place.
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