Friday, August 29, 2008

The Decision

Anywhere it was the signal for the five of us to meet. We would as usual exchange news, jokes and chat about anything under the blue sky. After a while we would decide on a particular game to play for the say. Our favourite games in those days were marbles, hide and seek, kite flying, top spinning, rounders, hit and run fishing or chada-gudu (a traditional Indian game).
Ravi suggested, "Let's play with marbles."
Guna interrupted, "No, not today. We played it yesterday. So boring."
Thaila suggested, "What about kite flying?"
I answered quite annoyed, "How to fly the kites? There isn't any wind and it's terribly warm now."
Gopal joined in, "Fishing. Fishing. Let's go. I know of a place that is nice and not very far away."
"Where is it?" the three of us asked.
Gopal continued, "It's near my cow shed and the cemetery, the Chinese one."
"What? Crazy idea! I wouldn't go there. It's not a good place to go to." Ravi said in protest.
"No, we are not going to the cemetery. We are only using the road near it to get to the pond." Gopal explained.
"It's still a crazy idea," Ravi added.
Ravi was the youngest in the group and always the most timid. He was always skeptical and pessimistic. Even though he usually protested, he would yield in the end and joined in because he did not want to be left out of the fun.
I added, "It's a crazy idea but why not. It's worth a try if there are fish there.

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