Little Chintu Series 2: The Fag

Two eggs and a packet of slice bread. That was what, as part of his daily morning ritual, Chintu had to get from the neighborhood kirana shop. Sometimes, Chintu’s mom added a match box or a packet of salt to that list, when needed.

With tousled hair, striped pyjamas and rubber slippers on, Chintu would walk out of the gates dreamily. As much as he hated to wake up early, he had begun to look forward to this imposed morning walk on pretext of running an errand. The wonders of an active morning would slowly creep into his still sleepy eyes till it aroused them completely.

”Two eggs, one bread slice; two eggs one bread slice; two eggs one bread slice…”, Chintu would murmur all his way to the shop to prevent forgetting the items. If the provisions were more, Chintu’s mom would list them on a piece of paper and shove it in his shirt pocket. However, for two eggs and a packet of slice bread, she trusted his memory.

He would be so conscious of not loosing the trail of the items in his mind that even when the friendly neighbor aunty would wish him good morning, he would turn to her and nod, uttering, “two eggs one bread slice”. On the way though, he wouldn’t miss playing with the wild touch-me-not bushes in front of Madhu aunty’s house till he was sure he tickled them all to sleep. He would then cross Rohan’s house and pat his pet dog tethered at the gates. This became the pattern of his daily walk to the kirana shop.

And then, after many days there was a change to this pattern. Occasionally, a few blocks away from his house, Chintu observed a skinny man perched on the rails of his balcony, puffing smoke from his mouth, holding a white burning thing between his fingers. This exercise of putting fire into mouth and blowing out smoke fascinated Chintu beyond bounds. After the man was done, he would throw the glowing remains of the thing on the road. Chintu often crossed the man’s house in anticipation of catching him in this mysterious smoke-bellowing action.

On one such day while crossing the man's house, the glowing thing flew right in front of him and landed at his feet. Chintu’s eyes lit up at the sight. He sensed adventure and his heart beat raced to the point that he could hear them thumping. He crouched to the ground for a closer inspection at the burning entity. After dwelling on it for a while, he picked the stub with hands quivering, surveyed on both sides of the road, and when he was convinced no one was looking, brought it to his lips and used all his force to take a deep drag. Chintu wouldn’t know to let the smoke out.