Of good and bad things

She felt like screaming her lungs out and hurling half a dozen abuses at the guy who whizzed past her, splashing her crisp cotton saree with muddy water that had comfortably settled in a pot-hole on the road. However, Tanya could not muster enough courage to put this scene into action at that time, though, it played in her mind a dozen times over during rest of the day. In an attempt to avoid what happened, she had even managed to drop the file she had clutched under her left arm, landing her presentation papers precisely inside the pit on the road.

Every time she stepped out of her desk in office to grab a cup of coffee or to collect a print-out, she pitifully watched her saree which still had some remnants of the muddy blobs, though she had tried to wash it off – the first thing she did after entering office.

Tanya had made a mental note of the number and had even decided what she would do the next time she spotted that car. Little did she know she would bump into it so soon.

As she left the office that day, a guy caught her attention while he was stepping out of a clinic, just a couple of blocks away from her office. He struggled with a limp and a fresh injury on his elbow - and he was approaching a car that seemed familiar to Tanya. In another flash of a moment, she realized it was the same car. She felt a rush of blood to her chest and her heart-beat started racing as her mind quickly retrieved information on what she had planned to do next.

The guy opened the door, took a laptop bag out of the car, closed the door, locked the car and waited for a taxi to arrive. After being turned down by a few of them, he finally managed to convince one taxi driver and drove off.

Tanya was left dumbstruck as she was reminded of one of the recent discussions with her mom. Her mom had explained to her that ‘Nature’ has its own way of getting back at people. The good we do, comes back to us, as well as the bad. It’s just a matter of time and faith.

Tanya felt pity for the guy, and maybe, a little guilty too – she felt that whatever bad happened to him after this morning’s episode was partly due to her. Maybe if she had hurled a stone at the car, it would have settled scores and ‘nature’ would not have stepped in between. Trying to get these thoughts out of her mind, she turned out and called out loud ‘Taxi…’