Renu ka Blog

I was talking on the phone to my friend, you know.... I keep mentioning her? Rekha Shenoy...

I say, "Wait, I will speak later..." I disconnect the call when I see a butterfly

Sitting quietly on the floor, waiting to be photographed on my mobile phone

The wings are grey-black. And the centre! Such a brilliant orange! With a black edging

Exactly like what a "mended" pencil sheds, you know....those tiny black-laced shavings?

I take the photo

I take the video

I have to post it on my "groups"

You know.... the usual suspects: My family, my extended family

My friends, my friends' friends,

You know, .........the entire troop.

And I post it on my Status, so proud I am....100 people check it, you know?

As expected, the first to reply is our Ironwala

:-) :-) :-)

"Beautiful Medaam"

But kya hua? No reply this time, from our Apartments ka Doodhwala?

Buoyed by classmates, some of whom

I have not seen may be for 40 years

I fetch a mug of water and paint the butterfly

With brushes and watercolours...

And I post it...No prize for guessing who to

Yes, family, friends....the usual suspects

It is 10 pm ...But now that I find that beauty just a little annoying

Silly thing. Doesn't see the open windows, uff! So maddening!

Keeps fluttering around in the room...

Arrey, window wahaan hai, I tell it shooing at it with a broom

Hoping it will leave the dark, I switch off every light.

Fly out, I say..."Look! The skies are there.....still blue and bright!"

Still, it stays on. It doesn't understand.

I understand a pandemic is on, I cannot step outside the door.

But what's with it, I ask...Why did it come from outside? Into my home on the seventh floor?

This confined life, no college, no students, no shopping or chatting with friends... Sometimes it makes me cry.

I wonder what the rhyming word should be, what sounds like "cry"?

I turn around to think....and it is gone.....that beautiful butterfly.