17-07-2025, 06:56 PM
Balcony: Midmorning Coffee
The city outside shimmered in the noon haze,
Distant honks, a rickshaw rattling below, some pigeon wings slicing through the sky.
But in that small balcony of Flat 205, time had chosen to slow down.
Ravi sat across from her, one hand curled around the edge of his steel tumbler.
Coffee, steaming hot. Not strong, not too sweet.
Just the way she liked it.
Priya Didi sat opposite
Her saree pallu pulled over her shoulder this time,
More traditional, but it didn’t matter.
The breeze played with her hair,
Lifting it gently off her forehead and brushing it against her cheek.
She didn’t fix it.
She let it stay there.
Maybe she was tired.
Maybe it was her way of saying she didn’t care how she looked today.
But to Ravi… she looked like a page out of a Bapu painting.
Not stylized. Sacred.
“Coffee is nice,” he said softly.
She glanced up, finally.
- o -
The city outside shimmered in the noon haze,
Distant honks, a rickshaw rattling below, some pigeon wings slicing through the sky.
But in that small balcony of Flat 205, time had chosen to slow down.
Ravi sat across from her, one hand curled around the edge of his steel tumbler.
Coffee, steaming hot. Not strong, not too sweet.
Just the way she liked it.
Priya Didi sat opposite
Her saree pallu pulled over her shoulder this time,
More traditional, but it didn’t matter.
The breeze played with her hair,
Lifting it gently off her forehead and brushing it against her cheek.
She didn’t fix it.
She let it stay there.
Maybe she was tired.
Maybe it was her way of saying she didn’t care how she looked today.
But to Ravi… she looked like a page out of a Bapu painting.
Not stylized. Sacred.
“Coffee is nice,” he said softly.
She glanced up, finally.
- o -
.