FF - Tumhari Meri Baatein. Part 6 Page 22. 20/09

Geet raised her hand, squinting towards the hills as she as she lounged in a rickety wooden chair, the remnants of her food being cleared away by a whistling teenager, her feet tapping in rhythm to the crooning voice emanating from the tiny radio perched in the small dhabha she'd stopped at over an hour before. The sun was beginning to set; the harsh hues of yellow and orange and red setting the horizon aflame as she watched the shadows of overhead birds flitting across the river Noyyal.

She felt warm and sated and tired and ... edgy.

The itch was back. The incessant restlessness that had shadowed her for the past month and a half, forcing her to abandon every exciting, spiritual and beautiful place she had stumbled upon whilst trekking tirelessly through the country. She had moved on after only a week, or a couple of days, or staying every other day until she had ended up in Coimbatore ' she hadn't even been here for 24 hours and already she had to force herself to stay put and not run screaming.

She frowned.

Now if only she knew where she was running to...

But she could figure that out on the train. The Station wasn't far and it wouldn't take very long for her to settle her accounts at the hotel. A mental calculation of her finances so far revealed that she had enough to cover herself for a few more days, maybe two weeks if she stuck to the smaller towns, stopped giving hefty tips to the maids and resigned herself to window shopping. And stopped eating.

The radio crackled and the song changed to some dusty love track about doe-eyed girl swooning over her Piya. Geet snorted with disgust; she would be a singing a different tune if she actually married the guy and realised how lousy love actually was.

She sighed, tilting her head back, allowing her eyes to drift shut and idly listening to the sounds around her. The light sounds of traffic at the busier end of the city, the rumble of chatter around her, the soft buzz of the flies, the angry cry of a revving engine streaking down the highway before coming to a screeching stop close to the dhabha.

Geet cracked open an eye, taking in the impossibly red F430 Spider, gleaming under the shaft of light provided by the swinging bulb of the dhabha and set against a backdrop of rolling hills and a cloud of settling dust. She mulled over the possibility of making a run for it, but couldn't bring herself to spoil the evening with a dusty, sweaty, mad dash that would end up with her in the car anyway. She may be an optimist but even Geet knew to stop when the devil came calling.

And so she leant back again, shifting to find a comfortable spot in the tottering chair as she hummed along to the radio ' which had thankfully moved away from the chirpy love songs and on to a mindless item number.

There was the loud slam of a car door followed by a deafening silence, presumably half of Coimbatore staring slack-jawed at the impractical Ferrari, before heavy footfalls barrelled towards her and a looming shadow blocked out the little light she could sense through her eyelids.

"Mind if I take this seat?" Geet sighed, mentally squaring her shoulders before opening her eyes and addressing the uptight, stiff-jawed figure before her.

"Maan."