A Plate of Momos

Kritvik Bhatt

Riiiing!

My smartphone buzzed. My figure, sunken down the brown blanket, slowly rose up. My room was still filled with darkness as some faint lights of the rising sun seeped in from the windows on my left. My hairs were messy and my eyes were narrowed. Suddenly, a smile emerged from my lips.

“Man, finally, I’ll be meeting Sana today!”

After some minutes, I was brushing in front of the white sink beside the white toilet on my right and the door on my left. The white LED bulb was turned on, while some light also came in from the blurry window fixed up the toilet seat. My eyes were still narrowed as I wiped my brush on my teeth, filled with the white toothpaste.

“For some reason, I was always excited to meet her. Maybe because in the whole fifteen days of exams, I was able to meet her only six times, and that too for only some minutes before both of us had to leave for our homes. So, I was damned excited for today. But, it was not just meeting with Sana that made this day special. There was another thing which made that day special.”

***

“Yeah, I called you yesterday. But, you see, you were not at home,” Sana told me, who was walking on her left. She then turned her head to me and said, “Your mom said you were gone out somewhere.”

“I-I’m sorry,” I said with a smile as I looked into her eyes upon her black thick mask. “Aaryan called me, so I had to go, man.”

“I just can’t believe how you two became friends. Like, he was bullying you before all this!”

Both of us were walking in the middle of the crowd of students, with some gangs of boys and girls in front of us and in back of us, on the ground toward the gate. All of us had our bags behind our backs. The sun was shining brightly, for some reason, even though it were winters.

“Yeah, man, it’s just like that, maybe.”

“Well, whatever.”

“So, why were you calling me?” I asked her, turning my head frontward, because I knew I wouldn’t feel great if I hear that it was something serious.

Luckily, she replied, “Well, I just wanted you to solve some doubts of mine. You see, I’m really bad at math.”

I nodded, and turned my head a little downward, seeping my hands inside my pockets. “… Hope it wasn’t something serious.”

“It wasn’t,” She simply replied. She then turned to me and said, “The next exam is of Hindi?”

I nodded and turned to her. “Yeah, man.”

Her face suddenly filled with disgust. “I don’t wanna study Hindi now! I just got away with math!”

“Yeah, man. Both Hindi and math were together.” I then turned my head to the front. Both of us stepped out of the school and turned left on the street filled with bungalows all around. “Obviously they had to make sure we students give both the tough exams one after another.”

“Yeah. Like, English is easy, science is easy, but math and Hindi are tough. And, English and science are done, and math and Hindi just after them.”

I smiled. “No doubt they’re running a conspiracy or some stuff against us.”

She smiled too. “Yeah yeah.”

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Both of us patted our shoes on the street as we walked. In front of us, some dozen steps away, was a T-intersection, with crowds of people walking all around on the footpath and cars slowly running down the road.

There was a silence of a couple of seconds between the two of us as we walked, hearing the faint sounds of chatters going on in our front and back, and the cars honking and people walking in front of us some meters away.

Suddenly, she said, “Anyway, are you on Campfire?”

“Huh? What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a social media site.” She then turned to me. “You really don’t know about it?”

I tightened my lips and turned to her, smiling a little awkwardly. “I’ve heard of it, but never got to know what it actually is.”

“Yeah, compared to some other sites, this one is really small. But, it’s still famous. Like, you see, other sites are filled with adults and old guys, but this one is mostly used by teenagers.”

“Huh? That’s great. Do you have an account on it?” I asked.

She nodded. “Next time, if I’ll ever have a doubt, I’ll just message you. When you come online, you can answer it. Cool, right?”

I nodded as I smiled. “That’s great. I’ll create an account soon, maybe.”

“Whatever. Anyway, hear me out! Like, you won’t believe what happened at tuition yesterday!”

“It came as a surprise, but… she was now trusting me enough to tell me stories about her life and stuff.”

“Huh?!”

“Really! Can you even believe it?! And, she was cracking such cringe jokes when she was doing her so-called stand-up comedy in front of the tuition that no one even laughed!”

“Damn, man! Your tuition is just… I can’t even have words to say.”

“Yeah. Like, that emo college guy who teaches is kinda cool with us.”

“So this type of stuff must be happening a lot.”

“Yeah.”

I turned my head to the front, stepping on the footpath of the market. “That’s great, man. No doubt.”

We both turned to our right and continued walking in the market. The marketplace had little shops on our right, a small dusty path between the markets and the road which was used as a footpath, and a smooth road on our left. The market was bustling under the scorching sun as people walked here and there with their heads covered with their hands or some cloth and cars and scooters ran.

“Don’t you go to tuition, K?” Sana asked me.

I turned to her again and looked at her with a smile. “No, man. I can handle it myself.”

“What?! Really?!”

“Y-Yeah.”

She then narrowed her eyes. “Stop flexing it around, emo.”

“I-I wasn’t flexing it…”

“You were.” She then turned to the front, noticed something, and then asked, “Well, do you have some money, by any chance?”

“Huh? Yeah. I got about a hundred rupees or two.”

She smiled as she turned to me. “Momos?”

I frowned. “No! I can’t use them without my mom’s permission. Only if it’s really necessary!”

“Come on, K!” She pleaded. “You see, it’s been days since I’ve eaten them!”

I turned my head to the front. I then noticed the vendor and his stall, which had a little blackened stall filled with blue posters of momos on all the sides. He had a steel steamer on the stall, and was taking out some pieces of white ball-like dish onto a plastic plate.

“These stalls don’t really open at this time of the day, you see,” She said as I glared at the guy. “So, what have you decided?”

“Who can win against you, huh?” I said. “But who will save me from my mom then?”

“Just stop being an emo now,” She said. “You see, I don’t wanna feel guilty while eating them.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Uhm…” I turned to her, looked into her eyes as she looked back into mine, and then turned my head downward to think.

“I was scared at that time to even think about such a thing, man! We were just kids, after all. Obviously, I was scared about using money before even asking for permission. If it was my mom, she must have rejected the idea by saying something like it’s unhealthy, we can eat sometime else, or something like that. But… what should I say to her? That was what I was thinking—if it were the correct thing to do or not. And, my brain was too little to decide on that matter. But, man, it’s these little moments that we remember for years, don’t we?”

“O-Okay, then.” I turned to her.

She smiled and excitedly shouted, “Cool!”

“It’s just these little moments that we remember for years. I might remember myself being scolded for this stuff, obviously, but I had fun. And, I, for some reason, wanted to have such little moments with her… to bond with her like that.”

***

Bang bang!

The door was slapped from the other side. Then, the bell rang from the outside.

My mother in her usual traditional Indian attire of a kurti-pajami and slippers walked to the door across the drawing room. She pulled the latch down on top of the door, twisted the doorknob, and pulled the door. On the other side of the door, outside the house, stood my figure in my school uniform.

“So, how was the exam, dear?” She asked.

“Great,” I replied as I walked in and turned to my left to the drawing room. The drawing room was lit by the sunlight coming in from the windows and opened the door to the balcony beside the sofa-set. I walked to the couch and threw my butt on the right corner of the couch—the side adjacent to the side facing the television—and started to take my bag off my shoulders. “I didn’t know a six-marker, but soon I got to the answer after some blind hits.”

“Good,” She said as she walked and sat on the couch, turning her face to the television and playing the paused show on it.

“I lied, so what?” A female character on the show said.

“What?!” A scene filled with extra-editing and dramatized transition effects said.

“No way! My sister lied?!”

It was an Indian daily soap, man. It was supposed to be filled with such unrealistic editing.

My mom then turned to me as the characters kept on saying some stuff and effects kept on playing. “How many marks do you expect, then?”

“About eighty-five percent or something,” I replied as I looked at her. “For some reason, there were some questions I am not sure of.”

She nodded. “You need to practice more, dear. You need to be sure of every single answer you write on the board exam. Got it?”

“Yes, mom.”

“And the next exam is of Hindi?” She confirmed.

“Yes.”

“Your generation is a little weak in Hindi, so make sure that you study grammar well enough.”

“Yes, mom.”

She then turned to the television again. “Go change your clothes, dear. And then take a nap. You gotta study for the next exam too.”

“Hmm,” I nodded and stood up from the sofa. I turned backward, and then to right, toward my room, and started to walk in as I started unbuttoning my shirt.

“By the way, I gave you one hundred and forty, right?”

“Yes, mom,” I replied. I was scared inside, obviously, and for some reason, I started chanting in my head, “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!”

“Give them back, dear. I’ll be going shopping in the evening.”

“I got caught…” I thought. “It’s better… if I confess my crime before she finds it out. Maybe… Maybe she’ll be less angry…” I then walked a couple of steps to her and stood beside the sofa again. “Actually, mom, I… I was with a friend of mine, so we decided to… to have a plate of momos.”

“What?” She frowned as she turned to me. “Why?”

“J-Just happened to pass by one vendor.”

“Don’t eat from street vendors, Kritvik! I’ve told you so many times! They are not good for your health!”

“B-But we only ate once.”

“Still, stay with some adults. They will make sure the place is good or not. We need to be careful while eating with vendors. You know about their stalls, right?”

“Y-Yeah, mom.”

She nodded. She continued to glare at me, and I turned my head up at her. I saw her anger fading away. “With whom?”

“A friend.”

“So you two bought a single plate?”

“Yeah.”

“How much did it cost?”

“Forty. So I have one hundred left.”

She frowned her eyes. “He didn’t give any money?”

“N-No, she was not carrying any money with her.”

“… You ate momos with a girl?” My mom asked. “How did you?”

“Fuck! I slipped up again!” I thought. “U-Uh…”

“Sana, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Knew it. Don’t get too close to her, okay?” My mom said. “Dear, girls nowadays just try to use boys. I’ve seen some girls using innocent guys for things around here.”

“Y-Yeah, mom.”

“See, she ate the meal and didn’t even think about returning it back to you.”

“But it was just a small sum, mom.”

“But she’s a kid too, just like you. If you took twenty or thirty rupees from someone, would you not think of returning it back?” She asked me.

I turned my head downward in guilt and shame.

“I didn’t know how to defend Sana back then. I knew I had to say something, but I felt like… somewhere… she’s not entirely wrong. What if she really was trying to use me? For some reason, I kinda got into her words.”

“I’m not saying that she is a girl like that, but she can be, dear. Stay away from bad people—that’s what I always say, right?”

“Yeah, mom.”

“Momos were not worth it. Those words… were too harsh for a child like me.”