I was stalked!

All I wanted was to do was spend sometime with myself. Usually I take a walk when I want to be alone. I love walking alone sometimes ……looking at plants, houses, sky and be all by myself with my thoughts. We usually go for walk on the same road almost everyday. It’s a wide, quiet road. And in the evenings or mornings you can find few people taking brisk walk. Also there are people taking driving lessons with L board on their cars.

Today I dropped my cousin to bus stop and I found myself going on that road instead of going home. The weather was pretty good and I was walking slowly looking at flowers, garden, dew on the leaves, the rain washed road, sky, buildings…enjoying the cold breeze. I had no idea that someone was stalking. The first time I noticed him was when he went very close to me o nhis bicycle. It was then his presence caught my attention. I didn’t give it much thought then. I ahd to cross a road to get to the other side. I noticed him standing at the other side of the road looking at all the four directions. It seemed to me as though he was looking for some one. He was turning his head in all directions pedaling his cycle. He must have been 17-18 year old kid. Okay, I’m not too good at telling age of people by looking at their face. It was like some kid playing with his friends. It gave me a impression that he was waiting for somebody or he was getting away from somebody or he was looking for someone. As kids we used to do this. Speed fast on bicycle and make sure nobody catches up with your speed. If anybody has sped past you, you must go and stop that fellow. You know things like that… His ways reminded me of all those good old days. It reminded me of my BSA Champ cycle as well, which I had as a kid. As I cross the road and go straight I find him standing at the end of the road with his bicycle. I was alarmed now. Instead of going till the end of the road I turn back and start walking. To my surprise he starts cycling towards me. I stare at him. His face wore such an innocent look. I felt I was thinking something utterly stupid. I walk for awhile and suddenly take a turn. I was happy not to find him behind me. And guess what he was at the other end of the road!!!!! Now I was damn sure. This guy is up to something. I stare at him. He looks straight into my eyes. He looks so damn innocent. There wasn’t anything threatening the way he looked at me. I continued taking such turns and then retracing my steps back….he passed by me so many times. I was concentrating hard on his features….so that I can help somebody to draw his pic…in case there was a need for that!!!this was so stupid of me. I know. I don’t know why such thoughts came into my head. I had forgotten that I could take his pic in a second with my mobile. It was already some 20 minutes since he was behind me. Next time I took out my cell pretended to focus him. He was bit far from me then. He got a whiff of it I think. He made a sudden turn and stood at he end of the road. I pretended to be busy messaging and stood at the side of the road(Thatz one big use of cellphones). I was very near my house then. Bu ti didn’t want him to know where I live. So I walk backwards again. This was going on since past half an hour. I can’t go on doing this. I decided to head home. I was just few steps away from my apartment. There is a vegetable shop on my way to home. it was crowded with people. As soon as I had taken the turn towards my home this guy had already taken that route and he was much ahead of me. I stand outside vegetable shop for awhile. This guy comes back…looks at me and goes and takes a turn. This was what I was waiting for. I started running. I was not panicky. At least I didn’t show him. But now it was too much for me to handle. I wanted to go home. I don’t know what came upon me I started running. My home was just 20 steps from there. there were people in the main entrance. If he had goen ther e iwould have had to stop to explain somebody ..why I was running. I was sweating by now. I ran straight to basement. It was so dark and silent. Good there was nobody. I have never liked basements. I took lift to the first floor. It was over.

This is second such incident that has happened with me. I donno which one is worse. On the first time some kid had spat on me after following me for sometime. Even then I was returning from my morning walk. I stopped my morning walks after that. That kid was so so scary. He was giving me weird looks.

What was so scary about this guy who after me today was…he looked so innocent and the way he looked at me…nothing was threatening. And I think that scared me a lot.

Kaavya, what was the need to copy?

I finished reading How Opal Mehta got kissed got wild got a life yesterday, in one go. It took me some 4 and half hours. It was so hilarious. To me reading is like a stress buster. I was in such a rotten state yesterday. It pepped up my mood. I liked it. I donno what part of it Kaavya has copied. I loved the story. I’m too sleepy to write about it in detail now. It’s the time I get a laptop for myself. I so much wanted to write about it at 3AM yesterday. Didn’t have access to computer at that hour.

panipuri stall

During those days panipuri was my favorite. I and my sister used to relish on yummy panipuri almost daily as kids. There was a panipuri gaadi near my house. Yeah, a roadside stall. As kids we used to be promptly present at this roadside stall by evening. It was run by two brothers. Till today I had thought there were dad-son duo. But actually they were brothers! The younger one was very handsome. He was a very jovial fellow, full of smiles . Sometimes our whole gang used to hit his stall and have loads of fun filling our tummies with panipuri. We used to get extra puri and extra servings per plate!! My sister being the youngest was his favorite. She loved panipuri more than anyone of us. For a long time she was his permanent customer. They used to talk non stop about earth, sky, school…..During holidays it was our adda in the evening. We were in awe with his vegetable cutting speed. He would be looking at us and casually talking to us while cutting onions with such speed and great precision. All the onion pieces would be of equal size. There would be so much symmetry. His elder brother would be mostly washing plates. Giving out the plates to people. He never let his younger brother do these work. He would always smile at us. He hardly talked to us those days. For a very long time we used to go to their panipuri stall. Then we changed house, our gang disintegrated, friends moved out of town or shifted their house too. Our visit to panipuri stall became less frequent. During those days we came to know much more about him than just his culinary skills. My aunt used to work as a part-time lecturer in MCA dept. He had just taken up the course. And one day he told mom that one of his lecturers resemble my mom so much. It was then that we came to know he was a very bright student and had got medal in Degree. And that he had taken up loan to pay his college fee. He would work at the panipuri stall from 4.30 in the evening till 10 at night. Later go home and study!!
Mom helped him get some books from his lecturers. He thanked mom so sweetly for that on our next visit. After a while I no longer enjoyed eating panipuri and stopped going to his place altogether. Somehow we were not in touch with them for a long time. After a couple of years we got to know from somebody that the guy had landed in a good job and was earning well now. Somehow he had gone out of our mind all these years.

As I and mom were walking in Residency road today, a well dressed young man who was walking along with another fellow(his colleague) stops infront of us and says, “ Hi aunty” and beams with a smile. For a second I couldn’t recognize him at all. Suddenly it brought back heap of memories. This was our young ‘panipuri uncle’. As kids we used to call both him and his bro as uncle only. We were so happy to see him. It was pretty evident from his appearance that he was doing well in life. I had always seen him in the same blue coat, a smile on his face, and a specs. He talked to mom about his work and said he married a girl whom he met at his previous workplace and that they also have a kid now!!!! Time flies so fast!!!! He looked at me and asked,” Hey, where is my friend? What is she doing now?” (He was referring to my sister). We exchanged phone numbers and invited him home. This would be one visit I would be looking forward to. what struck me most is that he stopped to talk us. I wouldn’t have recognized him at all. He wasn’t intimidated by the fact that he was with his colleague and that we could have mentioned about his past. Of course I would have never mentioned it. He is one of the nicest persons I have me till date.