THE ELUSIVE GIRL
The girl lives in a double storied house in a developing part of Bengaluru city, with her father. The elder person whom I surmise as her father is leading a retired life with the girl. Their house stands on the other side of the small road that faces the rear side balcony of the apartment where I stay during my occasional visits to the Garden City. From the balcony I could hardly hear any conversations from their house, constructed on the stilt. The doors and windows of the house usually remain closed.
The girl, apparently in her early twenties with a medium build, keeps her hair loose and invariably unplaited. Her choice of colourful dresses matching her fair complexion makes her noticeable when her loose hair keeps swinging with the wind. She shows no inclination to interact with others save with her pet dog. She occasionally appears in the balcony not looking at any one in particular. Unlike girls of her age she displays no mobile phone in her hand at any time but silently collects the morning newspaper down the stairs and goes back inside. She comes out once in a while with a broomstick in her hand for a quick sweep in the balcony. Her life seemed to me like a closed cocoon.
I have no idea of the girl’s educational pursuits as she mostly remains indoors. The death of her pet canine recently seemed to have left a vacuum in her secluded way of life. Perhaps as if to divert evagations, she started tending over two dozen plants in pots arranged in the balcony and terrace, as no open place is available around the porch, ground floor.
The girl waters the plants going about gently with an utensil in her hand and retires inside without looking anywhere. She never noticed me observing her daily routine with an inexplicable curiosity, as I found her divergent like the characters in Thomas Hardy novels. The father and daughter do not converse and go their ways separately. The perceived reticence seems to be a family trait. The two members’ family may be in a situation of fate. Though I have been noticing them for some five years, nothing has changed as to their way of life.
The digital technological intrusion into our homes and lives these days seems too, not to have touched the girl as no internet or TV connections are visible in the house when the dish has become a sine qua non to the present day lifestyles.
A water bowl is kept for the pigeons and sparrows on the terrace with some feed which are refilled periodically. Strangely the girl prefers hibernation when the visiting avians to their terrace can fly with freedom. One day the girl may fly away leaving her parental home for a family and nest of her own as it happens to any girl of her age. Lives change with the times so as fortunes.
It has been a couple of years since this story was written and remains unpublished but surprisingly the method of the girl’s daily life almost remains the same as I have noticed very recently.
ESKAYEN
