Entry Id 1138: A Journey to the Heart by Amar Agarwala
Flight lieutenant Vaibhav Sahai, was running late for his flight to Mumbai. As he rushed towards Gate No.26 of Terminal One located at the extreme end of the Frankfurt International Airport, the nagging pain in his left ankle made his progress tardy, it vaguely irritated him for his hand trolley was heavier than he had planned.
At another terminal of the same airport, Tina Ramchand, was rushing too, her connecting flight to Mumbai was scheduled in another half an hour, the air-hostess had verbally informed that her gate would be No.26, stating the change of terminals was due to congestion in Terminal Three, where the flight had landed from Casablanca.
A few minutes to 11:00 a.m., before Gate No.26 finally closed, both passengers almost collided into one another having just reached their check-in gate, it was their final call. Vaibhav, managed to nudge ahead of Tina, and was checked in before her, much to her annoyance. Having to wait, she remarked rather audibly to the flight attendant checking her in, “Talk about chivalry in men,” then she sprinted ahead into the flight alley.
“Wonder if civilians know much about chivalrous behavior,” Vaibhav commented audibly enough as Tina rushed passed him in the alley.
Entry Id 1139: Kendra by Sujata Biswas
Kendra was born in a very rich Brahmin family in the Educational center of east India- the anglicized Calcutta but always called Kolkata. Her family members were either pandits or jute merchants. Kendra was a scholar in literature and like most Calcuttans was a singer. Kendra’s baba, Ramdas Choudhry, a very famous Jute merchant, called her Kokil. Kedra lost her mother at the age of five in the episode of communal violence in Kolkata in1946. This incident had impacted Kendra severely. Being the only child she used to share her life with a very old inherited diary from her Great grandfather who used to work with the Nawabs. She started her day by singing to her father and visiting the Kalibari. Reading 2 pages from her favorite novel her mother used to read- “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens was like a ritual for Kendra. Whole day she would spend helping her father in his business.
Their mansion, “Ichaa” was located in the beautiful enthralling banks of Hoogli. Ichaa was surrounded by lush green trees and 2 temples on the adjacent side. Kendra had a small garden and in the center of the garden is where she used to grow red roses, her favorite flower as our very own Panditji Jawaharlal Nehru. Stuck on a small card at one corner of her rose garden was Panditji’s picture. Entire evening she would sit by the garden chanting songs and reading the novel. Ramdas or Choudhryda as his loved ones called him would see his daughter from his room and get worried about her obsession with her book, her garden and her name.