I am visiting a friend.
I buy sweets.
The bakery is good.
I buy chicken cutlets too.
Five of them.
They are corrupted by time.
If they are safe to eat
By the evening,
I am not sure.
It’s already noon.
“They are freshly baked,” says the sales woman.
She is not just a sales woman.
She is also the wife of the owner.
So I trust her.
Time is 1.00 PM.
My wife is waiting for me to return.
She is also coming with me.
It’s our first visit after marriage.
We are visiting our best friend.
I raise a lot of dust
With my tires
As I rev the engine hard
For a quick turn and a fast return.
I pick her up at her home, one hour’s drive.
From there, we took the most romantic route
By the reserve forest,
On a macadam road.
From Panoor* to Peravoor**,
She won’t feel bored,
The road is fine, and the nature divine.
My friend was told
That we will reach by evening, at four.
We are a half way when it’s three thirty.
I try to smell hard for the chicken cutlets.
Any variation in smell
Meant they are lost to nature.
I slam the accelerator.
The car flies.
The road is not straight.
On both sides, Wild Life Reserves.
If I drive any faster
We may end up seeking room
For our dead bodies
Among the wilderness.
I try to tell my wife.
She is already nodding.
So I keep focused on the road.
I wanted to take the cutlets out
And check them one last time.
I pray they are patient
Before they decide to give in
To the instinct of nature
To transform in an inedible form.
By the time, we reach his house
It was raining at Peravoor.
Before greeting him
The first thing I did
Was to check on my chicken cutlets.
I thought I could just leave
The cutlets inside the car
In case they are rotten.
Before I could smell them,
My wife snatched them away
And placed them on a table
For everyone to see.
She seemed confident.
Had she seen the owner’s wife?
I urged my friend
To take the banana chips first
Wishing, he would forget
Chicken cutlets until we left the place.
That way I hoped to save my molten pride
From spilling over
The heated veins of the body.
I decided to trust
For the time being
What I was told
By the baker’s lady.