The Capri-beat

“Maya your food’s turning cold now…where are you?”

“Coming mom..”

“You’ve been saying that for more than an hour..what’s keeping you…need help with anything?”

“No.. I’m done. Here I am” she glided into the dining room.

Her mom forgot her complaints and began serving lunch…one look at the plate and the colours and textures burst out at Maya…yellow, green, white..food was so beautiful! How much trouble her mother must have taken to prepare such food..she wondered. Gulping it down without a care would be such injustice to such beautiful food..

Lost in thought she pulled a chair and slipped in, drawing closer to the table …she had not seen her mother bustling back into the kitchen and then toward the living room to check the papers.

Maya didn’t even realise she was staring at her untouched plate..and the food had transported her to a different land…she could see rocks and sand, creepers flowing downward from the branches of lush green trees..swaying in a gentle breeze..she could see a gurgling stream flowing and smooth gray rocks gleaming below…

Then she turned to see..a human figure walking toward her…tall like fathers are…but dressed in a different manner…may be this is how they dress themselves here she guessed as she looked at him approaching with a gentle smile on a face that was far from scary..it was fascinating and beautiful.

As she saw the figure reach closer, he bent and gathered a handful of smooth pebbles from the ground, and shaking the pebbles between both palms said to her, “Look what I made for you…!!” And next she saw him deposit something gleaming white in her plate with a swish of his arm…it was beautiful rice!!

Next he swooped toward the stream, gathering some water in his palm, swinging the arm with a gentle smile he again said, “Look what I made for you!” He poured something in her plate…it had become lovely yellow gravy.

He smiled at her dismay…reaching for the creepers…he held out his palm and there were leaves in his hand…with a swishing action in the air, he added something more to her plate…she stared and stared with childish glee at the salad glowing green.

“Now..have…” she heard the gentle entreaty. Maya couldn’t tear her eyes away from the miracle in her plate…and she reached out toward the food…slowly as if it was the most delicate stuff in the world. Scooping a morsel, she slowly took it towards her lips. She placed the mixture in her mouth and was still in bewilderment..the taste was unlike anything she had ever tasted…from the food the taste reached out, began to spread out like nothing else existed except it…Later, she used to think back to the times when the stranger would feed her thus. She could never recollect much about her immediate surroundings those times…except restrained wonder of her mother who would have read the papers and magazines to her heart’s content and returned to fetch some water to find her daughter perched before her half-empty plate, eating as though that were the sole purpose of her life and had to do it perfectly without a single mistake.

“What’s the matter…?” she would ask, as a rule she never liked to bother anyone who was in the process of eating “so many hours to just finish your lunch?” she would murmur gently.

Looking back, Maya couldn’t even remember her mother’s look or reaction…may be she was indeed lost.