Madurai Malli

Murugan & Malli. Episode 1.
a short story

Murugan was very tired that day. He wanted to have a look at rural Madurai. So he decided to go on a long ride to meet his grand parents in KK Nagar. He hired a tvs50 moped from the mechanic nextdoor and took on the rural highway...

At 15kms pe hour, he could hardly miss anything on the road. The speeding highway trucks put that little moped onto the stony mud tracks, but murugan was holding the handle-bar firm and cool, enjoying every rural scene around.

First there were load of buffalos inside the tiny ponds and underneath the bridge. Wow, so many of them with just their big heads out the dirty water, it was really hot out there, and the buffs must be having a ball in the water, thought murugan.

He was sweating hard, but woudn't mind the 45 degree highways. Next he noticed an old Ghandian follower waving a Khadi Flag to all the passers-by... wow what a patriot he must be, . 'Do I have any sort of strong belief or followism?, not really. Or should I have one, I don't know yet' said Murugan.

Right in front of the bike were little school kids walking their way home for lunch in the scorching heat, but what makes him smile is a Kid carrying his little brother like a sack to avoid that hot sand and rug from those little feet. This really is Rural India! That was picture perfect scene. Click. Murugan never had a camera but all this went into his hard drive that would never crash or fail to read. Thats when he felt he could be the legendary Bresson someday...

(to be continued...)