* Shompa * Ei Shompa, kothaye gaeli re (Hey Shompa, where did you go)? shouted the fat woman sitting cross-legged on a rickety bed. The woman had loads of make-up caked onto her face, and she had a thick wad of currency notes in one hand, and a paan (that she planned to stuff in her mouth soon) in the other. The anxious customer sat down on a nearby chair, as rickety as the womans bed. This was his first visit to a brothel, obvious from both his perspiration and his palpitation. The woman saw the nervousness on his face and laughed. Relax koroon moshai (Please relax mister), the woman told him before she started laughing again. Shompa was nowhere to be found. She had been seen earlier in the morning playing with a frog she had caught the previous night. The poor frog now sat inside a polybag. Shompa had been wise enough to poke a few holes in the polybag to allow the frog to breathe. Then she had quietly slipped out of the brothel so that she could breathe some fresh air herself. Shompa! the woman shouted again, louder this time. Her voice tore through the threadbare curtains that concealed the activity-rooms from the main reception. Unfortunately, her voice wasnt loud enough to travel all the way to the market where Shompa had decided to stroll. Moshai, there seems to be a problem with that girl. Would you mind another girl? the woman pointed towards Leela who sat on the floor staring at the hair emerging from the clients ear. The man stammered as he tried to reply, his nervousness getting the better of him. Exactly four and a half minutes later, the man lay on top of Leela, completely spent. Leela pitied the woman her young client would eventually marry. The old woman counted the currency notes that the new client had paid her. Six hundred rupees wasnt a bad deal for Leela at all, though Shompa would have fetched much more. Shompa! she shouted again. It was a directionless, pointless shout. She knew Shompa wasnt in the vicinity, but she had to make her angry voice heard to keep the other girls under her control. Back in the market, Shompa sat on a high stool outside Ghosh Tea Stall sipping tea and eating nimkee, oblivious to the lashing she was due to get in less than an hour. Part 2 would be posted tomorrow. ~ Abhijit
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 17:30:00 +0000
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