Parle-G and Uncle Chipps

A pair of angelic albeit slightly somber eyes peered at me through circular plastic spectacles that sat on the middle of her nose.  Her hair was short and wavy, presumably brushed, but unkempt looking.  Her typical bright yellow 90s shirt with jet black stripes made her look somewhat like a harmless tiger.  A faded purple satchel kept slipping off of her left shoulder while she tried to balance a water bottle on her right hand.  I couldn't stop staring at the water bottle.  I found myself waiting for it to fall.  I wondered why the harmless tiger wouldn't just put it in her satchel.

The dusty little playground had white chalk line markers denoting spaces about 4 feet apart.  About 35 kids just like us, all within the ages of 8 and 11, had gathered at the playground for the Camlin Art contest.  I had ridden pillion on a Bajaj scooter with my Thatha, who had dropped me off at the venue with strict instructions to drink only from my water bottle.  On the playground, extroverted kids had formed groups and were chattering away excitedly, while the hesitant ones like the harmless tiger and myself were standing by themselves.  I was suddenly jolted out of my trance at the harmless tiger's water bottle by a strong voice emanating from two inappropriately loud speakers.  The source of the strong voice was a wiry young man, probably in his early twenties, standing at a makeshift podium.  He enthusiastically rattled off a welcome note, gave information about the contest prize (a Camlin hamper consisting of art supplies), and invited us to use the white chalk line markers to find a space to sit.  Kids began scampering around to find spots close to their newly found friends.  Being an introverted kid myself, I wandered around the playground to find a spot away from the boisterous sort.  Finally when I sat down, I found the harmless tiger sitting right next to me.  She was peering at me moodily through her glasses.  I smiled at her halfheartedly.  

"Hi", I mumbled hesitantly.

I was almost startled to see her face break out into a bright grin.  

"Hello", she chirped in a high pitched voice.

The loudspeakers cackled again.  Suddenly, as if on cue, the grin disappeared and her face took on an expression of extreme focus.  The topic of the day was announced: "Prehistoric Age". I soon got busy with drawing colorful dinosaurs and Mesozoic fauna on the sheet of paper given to me.  I ended up depicting a fairly unimaginative landscape.  An awfully asymmetrical pterodactyl was flying above a bunch of trees and staring down at a tall diplodocus chewing on a peculiar leaf.  A triceratops that looked more like a rhino was drinking water from a stream. A tyrannosaurus rex was also bizarrely present, resting under a tree.  After a while I glanced sideways at the harmless tiger's sheet.  Her canvas was much more imaginative that mine.  She had illustrated an action scene of two allosauruses trying to hunt a little baby stegosaurus while a large brachiosaurus was trying to save the baby.  The mother stego was standing afar, presumably unaware of the danger her baby was facing.  A pterodactyl was looking down on the scene from the sky with its mouth open, as if it was shouting for help.  Quite avant-garde, I thought.

It was soon time for us to turn in our sheets.  The harmless tiger and I looked at each other and smiled.  A friendship of sorts had germinated, or so it seemed.  Kids broke out into groups again, chattering away.  The harmless tiger and I found a large rock to sit on.  She sipped water from her water bottle.  I took out a packet of Parle-G biscuits from my bag and started chomping away.  It semi-occurred to me that I should share my snack with her, but for some reason I decided not to.  She produced a packet of Uncle Chipps from her satchel and started crunching away.  I could sense that she also semi-thought of sharing the chips with me, but had then decided against it.  It was alright, I hated Uncle Chipps anyway.

"Good competition this", she said, rather suddenly.

It took me a couple seconds to comprehend what she was talking about as I was still in the process of swallowing a soggy Parle-G.

"Ya", I responded when my mouth was free.

"What did you draw?", she asked.

"Oh nothing, some dinosaurs and trees, that's all", I said.

"Oh", she said.

I couldn't think of anything else to say.  So I decided to eat more Parle-G.

"Did you see my drawing?", she asked suddenly.

"No.... I..", I fumbled.

"I saw you were looking at my drawing.  It's okay.  Did you like it?", she asked, her somber eyes lighting up.

"Yes, very thoughtful drawing", I said sheepishly.

Silence, except for the sound of munching.

"Chip?", she said, holding out the Uncle Chipps bag.

"No thanks", I said, "I don't really like them".

Her eyes became somber again.  I felt sorry for her.

"Parle-G?", I offered.

"No thanks", she replied, "There are too sweet".

The sound of chip crunching and biscuit munching filled the silence again.

Shortly, my Thatha arrived on his scooter.  It was time for me to leave.  I blurted out an "OK bye" to the harmless tiger and departed.  I thought she waved as our scooter bounded off, but I'm not entirely sure.

After a few minutes, I suddenly realized that I hadn't even asked the harmless tiger her name.