Of Ma Cherí and Cherries

Romila participates in the competition elims

The cab pulled up to Romila's apartment building.

"Madam, Aapka ghar aa gayaa

We have reached your house

", said the cabbie, honking the car to wake up its sleeping passenger. Romila got up with a start and felt relieved to see the familiar surroundings of her own residential building. She paid the cabbie, thanking him profusely for the same, and went by lift to her floor, which was the tenth.

She changed into her night dress after a rejuvenating hot water bath. Thoughts of Ashok kept coming to her mind, and a few even resulted in her blushing all over. Her rational mind disputed the ready facts: Ashok was unfaithful till date, and would likely ditch her once again if he saw or met a woman he thought was better than her. He had never tried to contact her in the last so many months since the separation. He had behaved so distant during the days after their separation, and had gone so readily to his new girl-friend/wife. There were strong positives too: when they were having an affair, he had been very caring, very faithful and he always gave considerate gifts. He had kept her number and had chosen to call her after his accident. He had named her in his living will. Finally, he had sounded so sincere the previous evening at the hospital, that she had no doubt about him and was beginning to fall in love with him all over again! Thinking all these things, she retired to her bed close to midnight and was asleep the next moment.

***********

When the alarm went off, it was already half past six. Unlike the previous few days, Romila decided to hit the jogging track behind her building. After downing a full glass of lemon juice that she carefully prepared with a sugar-free powdered sweetener and the juice of 2 medium lemons, she changed into a track suit and sports keds and went off to walk/run eight rounds of the 600 m sand track. It was eight o'clock when she reached back home, and just as she was opening the door to her apartment, she heard the telephone ringing.

She removed her shoes and, wiping herself with a towel, she reached the phone and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" she asked into the receiver.

"Hello? Is that Romila?"

The voice was that of an elderly female, and she thought she recognised the voice. "Is it Ashok's mom?" she asked cautiously.

"Yes, beta, I am Avantika, Ashok's mom. I called up to tell you that Ashok's father and I reached Mumbai today morning and are now in the lobby of the Sir H.N. Hospital. Can you please try and come and see us whenever you can? We will be here all day."

I don't think Buck Tooth will let me skip work today, and what with the meeting at 9.00, I will be lucky to even manage going to the hospital today. She held the receiver to her ear and said, "Namaste, aunty. I don't know when I will be able to find the time ..."

Ashok's mother cut in and said, "I know ... Mumbai is a terribly fast city, but please try and come."

Romila assured her that she would definitely try and meet them in the evening after her work hours and said a polite good bye. She looked at her wrist watch. It was already half past eight. Over the next ten minutes, she applied butter to about three slices of bread and made some tea for herself. She then had this breakfast and was finishing it when the wall clock chimed nine times.

"Oh ... " she muttered under her breath, and then eased, as she had herself set the wall clock at 15 minutes fast! This was done to avoid getting late on busy mornings (and she knew that fact as well as others did). Presently, she checked all the electric wires and electrical appliances to make sure none was left on accidentally, and then left the house.

The office of the Lions Group of __________ was located near the Gateway of India at Colaba. She reached at 20 minutes past nine in a "cool cab" - the up-market version of the Mumbai taxi that is blue and silver (and not the typical black and yellow) and is air-conditioned. Harish welcomed her into an inside room where there sat some six or seven other men and women, boys and girls, obviously all contestants for the elimination round.

She sat in one of the vacant chairs and looked around. The woman next to her looked quite obese and was chomping away at a Maharaja Mac, the large sized chicken burger that she must have purchased from the McD store next door to the office of the Lions. I wonder why she is stuffing herself like this, when we are all going to have to prove our worth by eating at least 200 cherries in 3 minutes!. Romila smiled inwardly and sat patiently, awaiting whatever came next. As she had to reach her office by half past ten, she was a little worried about what would happen if this whole thing got delayed. However, to her surprise, Harish came in within five minutes of leaving her, accompanied by two or three youngsters. They were carrying forms, pens, caps, writing boards, and a large carton between them. They placed the carton on the floor and stepped back.

"That carton, ladies and gentlemen, has prepared packets of ripe cherries. Each packet has 250 cherries. We have counted them meticulously, so please don't think we are only trying to fool you." He smiled at his own remark and continued, "My volunteers will now distribute these packets to you all. Please do not open them at present." As he was saying this, the volunteers were already removing the cherry packets from the carton and passing them on to each of the contestants. After this, they also passed out one form and a pen to each of the participating persons.

"Kindly fill in your details and return the forms first. I will explain the procedure of the elimination after this." Harish went to occupy one of the chairs among a row that faced the participants, and made himself busy with his cell phone.

Romila filled in all the details. She handed over her phone to a volunteer girl who smiled and accepted the form with thanks. Romila thanked her too and went back to her chair. Soon, all the forms had been collected, and Harish, having scrutinised them all, and finding no apparent reasons to disqualify anyone, came back in front of his audience.

"You will all sit in a circle in your own chairs, and a large open waste bin will be placed in front of all of you. When I say so, you will all open your own bags and start consuming the cherries. Please remove the pips and throw them in the central waste bin. At the end of three minutes, the elimination round will be over and we will collect your bags with the balance - that is, remaining - cherries. More participants will come for many more such rounds over the next three days, and we will inform all those who are successful within the next 24 hours after the close of the eliminations. Any questions?"

One of the men asked where the wash rooms were in case any of them barfed or needed to use them after the round, and was told where they could go in case they wanted to. No one else seemed to have any more questions, so they were all made to move their chairs to make a loose circle and a large waste bin was brought and placed in the centre.

Once everybody was settled, Harish called in a live camera team and a few photographers to shoot the eliminations. A few other people, probably from the Lions' Group, also came in to watch. Harish looked at everyone who was competing, and getting an acknowledgement that all of them were ready, he said, "Go!" The competitors all opened their bags, and the next few minutes, were busy removing handsful of cherries from it, gobbling them up and throwing out the pips into the waste-bin. There was pandemonium, but a lot of humour too in the situation. The observers were all enjoying themselves.

Romila could hardly breathe as she kept chomping on the cherries. She did not remember when she had last eaten as fast as this! She knew she had to dispose of a handful of cherries almost every 20 seconds and then eat another handful! At one stage, between two mouthsful, she felt an urge to vomit, and she had to make an effort to keep down the urge and go ahead with the eating of more cherries.

Three minutes aren't that long a time, but for the competitors, they seemed to go on for ever. Once, Romila glanced sidelong at the obese woman next to her, and saw, to her surprise, that she was red in the face, and retching! She felt both pity and disgust for the woman and felt ashamed for the same. She finally heard the magic word "Stop!" and was asked by the volunteers to remove the contents of her mouth into a new plastic bag to deduct the numbers of cherries in her mouth which were not yet swallowed.

Everyone was asking for water then, and most made a bee-line for the wash rooms. Romila remained sitting in her chair, examining the remnants of her cherry-bag. It seemed impossible, but there were hardly one to two handsful of cherries inside the bag! She felt sure she would qualify. She said a silent hip hip hurray to herself and handed over the bag to one of the volunteers.

Within minutes, she was on her way to her office. Gosh, Buck tooth is sure to be annoyed today ... it is already eleven!