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In Your Words - Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

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Alisah woke up to see that the sun was already shining bright through her yellow curtains. She checks the time, 8.30 am. She always woke up late on Saturdays as she did not have to go to work. Her parents understood her work pressures so they do not wake her up during the weekend letting her get her required amount of sleep. After checking the messages on the phone and freshening up, she walks down. Her mother was already busy in her test kitchen and she could hear the blender going on and off. She peeped into the study and found her father buried in a book. She went to the kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee. Black, strong and sugar less - that's how she liked it. She sat by the balcony sipping the coffee and immersed herself into the happenings of the newspaper. Her mother came up to her looking all confused.

"Al, does orange flavor taste better with white or dark chocolate?"

Alisah looked up from the paper and thought for a while as she examined the smoke emanating from her coffee cup.

"Definitely dark. You can use lemon with the white. That would taste fabulous."

"Thanks you darling, it sure makes sense. Call me when you are ready for breakfast, I shall pour in some pan cakes for you." She kisses her daughter on the forehead and walks back to the kitchen.

Alisah continues reading the paper for a good couple of hours. This was her routine. She always read her paper from front to back and she read every piece of news. Once done she went in for a long shower and came back to finish some yummy pancakes that her mother had made. Her father walks out of the study as she is eating.

"Good morning, darling. What are you up to today?" He asks cheerfully resting his reading glasses on his head.

"Mom wants me to go down to the bakery and try a few new items that she's been working on. Thinking of dropping by this afternoon. Care to join?"

"Naah, all that sweet gets to my head. Plus, I'm busy with Churchill's writings. You should read them sometime."

"Not that Pa. I find non fiction really boring, you know that na."

"Yeah, yeah." He walks back to the study.

Once breakfast is done Alisah goes back to her room and switches on her laptop. A few more comments come her way and she looks through them once before publishing them. She looks at the clock, quarter past eleven. She still had time, before joining her mother at the store. She decides to reply to the comments. She remembered that she she had not replied to the comments of her previous post either and sits down to patiently reply to every comment. As a blogger of many years she had come to realize the importance of comments and interacting with her readers. Some comments were easy to reply as they were just a "Good work", "Nice post" or a "Cool". Such comments only deserved a plain "Thank you" according to her.

As she finished the comments of her previous post, she came back to the comments of her latest poem. Her eyes fell on Kay's comment again.

"Interesting piece. The emotions and the longing are portrayed beautifully and this would stay with me for a long time. Would you mind if I re-wrote this, from the widow's point of view? Maybe she was in love with this man too, but couldn't do anything about it. Only if you let me, I shall write about it. Thanks."

Nobody had asked her such a thing before and she was a bit skeptical about letting him re-write it. What if it took away the original essence of her post? Worse, what if it was better and made hers look mediocre? Was she willing to put herself through this, she was not sure. After thinking for a while, she decided to go for it.

"Thank you Kay for taking out time to read this and understand the overlying emotions in the poem. Please go ahead and write your version of it. It would be interesting to read and I'll look forward to your interpretation of this."

She replied and re-read the comment again. It looked good. She then locks her laptop, changes quickly and heads off to her mother's bakery that was a fifteen minute walk away from their home.

The bakery was already crowded and her mother was running around with cakes and bread in her hand. She smiled at the Dev, the cashier and he smiled back. Alisah had been visiting this place for years and she knew all her mother's employees by name. Along with her mother, she had developed a bond with all of them too. Just when she was about to call out to her mother, Simi walked up to her. Simi was an excellent baker and was her mother's right hand in the business.

"Hello, Al. You look so pretty today."

"Thank you, Sim Sim. Looks like you are very busy today." She says looking around.

"We are adding five new items on the menu, so everyone is focusing on that. The customers are mainly here for the bread and the buns now. The cakes will sell only by evening." Simi says with a happy smile.

"Mom called me to try the new ones. Can I get some?"

"Sure, let's get to the kitchen at the back. Come with me."

Simi carefully gets her past the crowd and in to the kitchen where four chefs in crisp white uniforms are decorating and stacking up cakes and cup cakes. The aroma of this place took Alisah to heaven instantly.

"Al, you are here. Come, check this out." Her mother calls out from the other end of the kitchen.

As she walks up to the mother, she sees that there is an array of cup cakes in front of her. They looked so delicate, beautiful and delicious.

"This is a banana, with caramel topping." Her mother hands her the first one.

One bite and Alisah is transported to heaven. Again. The cake was soft and delicate, while the caramel topping was sweet and gooey. She loved it and told her mother that it was good. Her mother was already handing her the other cake.

"This is dark chocolate with orange peel and orange cream cheese icing." Her mother's voice was filled with pride.

Alisah also tried the poppy vanilla, the blueberry lavender and the white chocolate lemon one. She loved every one of it. She couldn't choose a favorite.

"I loved all of them, Mom. They will sell very well, I'm sure." She says, clearly proud of her mother.

"Thank you darling. I will be putting just a dozen of them each on the counter today. Based on the sale we make today, we shall bring out more." Her mother informs the chefs around her.

Pleased on having spent a wonderful time, Alisah got back home just in time for lunch along with her mother. Her mother, though a business women took it upon herself to serve her husband and daughter fresh food for every meal. Within thirty minutes she had whipped up some delicious fried rice and stir fried vegetables for lunch. Alisah's father went in for an afternoon nap, while her mother headed back to the store. Alisah went back to her room and unlocked her laptop. And yes there it was, a new comment. From Kay.

"Thank you Alisah. I'm glad you let me write about what I felt. Here is the link to my post. Please do take a look and let me know what you think about it."

Alisah went to the link and saw that he had used the same image that she had used as part of her post. He had given her credits in his post and let his readers know that it was his take on an existing poem written by her. It was linked back to her poem. He had titled his poem "Between The Curse and Me" and she thought that it was a wonderful title. As she read the poem, she fell in love with it. The widow's predicament was so beautifully told that she felt that her take was nothing when compared to it. Turns out the widow was in love with her neighbor too, but couldn't do anything about it due to the societal wrath. Her post had ended with the man's longing for the widow, while Kay's post ended with the widow ending her unhappy life. She frowned at the poignant ending, but it was somehow justified. The words, the rhymes, the emotions were so beautifully woven together that it tugged her heart. She longed to leave a comment but she had a lot to say.

She looked for his contact details in the profile and immediately found his email id. She thought for a while, and then composed a mail regarding everything that she thought about his post and how his writings had struck a chord with her. She went back to read a few other poems of his and wrote about each one of them in the mail. The mail looked much longer than any blog post that she had written so far. She re-read it once before sending it. Done.

She then read a book for a while and then decided to take a nap. She slept for a while and it was past five when she woke up. With blurry eyes she unlocked her laptop and checked her mail. There was a reply to her earlier mail, and this one was longer than what she had sent.

To be continued.

Comments

  1. Loved this, Soumya. Superbly narrated. Eagerly await the next one. :D

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  2. A reply which is longer than the earlier mail!! This is getting better and better and I cant wait to read what was in Kay's mail! Love between bloggers!?! Oooh!!

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  3. You really have this art of weaving words and thoughts.. this post and the previous one.. they are beautiful.. maintains the interest of the reader.. and flow of the story is coming out just perfect.. I'm enjoying this series to the core..

    Thanks for writing this one.. Seriously!

    Cheers

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  4. The story is nicely building up. waiting for more, Soumya. I'm hooked. :-)
    A Rat's Nibble

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  5. I can't wait to see where this is headed. Loving the story. Post the next part soon please.

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  6. Okay now I'm curious as to where it is headed...looks like I have to come back for the next part :)

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  7. I want to know what he has to say. The guy seems so interesting. I want to know more about him :)

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    1. Come back to know how interesting he is :)

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  8. Superb again! This seems to be headed somewhere. Please let them meet :)

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    1. Thank you Parul. They will, but not anytime soon :)

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  9. Wow! Am hooked .... Waiting eagerly .

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  10. I read this long back and couldn't post a comment then for some reason. What's going to happen next? I'm so loving this series <3 Don't keep us waiting for too long!

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  11. Fast paced narration, light hearted and jumping straight to part 3. Is it shrouded in mystery?

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  12. Still you all the way :) Non-fiction is boring for you too.. I loved the narration of this part, the way you had effortlessly captured the descriptions of the bakery, cakes and the characters' day-to-day activities.

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