After I get off work, I walk home – takes me about 25 minutes to get there if I don’t make any pit-stops along the way. The pit-stops usually are as follows:

1. Sajilo ‘Departmental’ Store
2. Phalphool pasaley
3. Kabab Chicken Corner/Just Baked (I’ll be posting on both KCC and JB soon)

3.happens on averege 4 times a week but since the kids have gone back to live with their parents, I don’t want to eat alone in the house. So 3. has been 7 for 7 for quite some time now. All of the above mentioned businesses reside in Purano Baneshwore Chowk. I know them and they know me – one of these days I intend to find out if they really love me by asking for credit. Lagyo-ing. Let’s see who loves me the most.

Making my first pit-stop, I greeted Kumar dai at the door before heading towards the aisle that has been a reliable location from which to pick Oat Krunch – Deliciously Fun & Tasty Crackers (Dark Chocolate) since the inauguration of Sajilo. I then noticed a neat stack of new brand of biscuits there that claimed to be ‘sugar free’.

I don’t have diabetes or anything but it’s not a bad idea to cut down on one’s sugar, if one can, I thought. About 3 Oat Krunchs, 1 to 2 chiyas, 3 cups of coffee everyday .. that’s quite a bit of sugar to consume in a day .. right? As I was about to launch into a debate with myself, I heard a guy’s voice from the aisle adjacent to where I was fixing to go cuckoo in my head:

Guy: “लौ! के कुरा गरेको? येस्तो मिठो न मिठो छ ..!”

Girl: “कस्तो बौला केटा होला! यो नक्कली हो क्या? कति भन्नु तिमीलाई त?”

Guy: “ह्या … प्लेबोईको ओरीजिनल सेन्ट हो भन्या यो! दुबईमा पनि पाईँदैन यत्तिको त!”

Girl: “जे पायो त्यै! तिमीले पोहोर मलाई पठाइदिइको त कस्तो रा..म्रो प्याकिङ् थियो – बास्ना त झन् के कुरा गर्नु। यो त प्याकिङ् पनि आचि जस्तो .. बास्ना … खै के बास्ना भन्ने? गन्दपनि आची जस्तो ..!

Guy: “अब त्यो त तिम्रोलागी थियो नि त .. यो त तिम्रो त्यो चरिनङ्ग्रे भाईका लागी पो त – राजेसे नभाको भये हामी कहाँ भेट्थिउँ र!! तर अबको पाली त झन हेर न के के पठाउँछु के के!”

At this point the girl started saying something about she not liking it whenever he makes fun of her brother. By their conversation it appeared that her (younger) brother had a lot to do with them hooking up.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, at this point, I did what every man who doesn’t have much to do after a long day at work would do: I eased my way into their aisle where they were about to launch into a fight and pretended like I couldn’t do without a toothbrush (I ended up buying the damn thing).

The guy was surveying that ‘playboy’ body-spray. His eyes approved of what he was looking at. He shook the canister twice near his ear as if it would belt out Rajesh Payal Rai any second before he sprayed a chsssssssssshhh on his palm. The girl, meanwhile, was frowning like a little girl looking as if her Barbie’s right leg was about to give way.

One of my good friend’s girlfriend is a married woman – yes, not to him – hence, you know, the ‘girlfriend’ title. She’s basically having an extra-marital affair: her husband’s out in the Gulf and hasn’t been home in more than 2 years. So whenever I think of Nepalis working out in the Middle East, I think of my friend and his girlfriend.

They talk every night (I know that because whenever we go out he makes it a point to get to her calls, etc.) – I don’t know if that’s love quite yet but he seems to care about her. So I had for some reason assumed most men working in the Gulf were either married or single. Today, that assumption changed.

These people weren’t married. They didn’t talk like they were married, look like they were married, or act like they were married. My suspicion was confirmed when the girl later had said “हाम्रो बिहेमा मलाई त सिफोनको सारी चाहि्न्छ .. भन्देकि छू अहिलेदेखिनै ..”

I studied the girl – a bit plump with warm eyes, she looked .. understanding and forgiving. She reminded me of Asha – my buddy’s girl who was cheating on her husband – only because they had something in common. This girl here who was trying to get her brother a better perfume didn’t at all look like the cheating type, I thought (and I’m no expert in reading people’s faces and determining whether or not they cheat or are loyal, understanding, etc.).

FYI: It was decided that tomorrow, at Pako, they would find a shop and get her brother a much nicer and a real perfume – राजेश was no fool! He’d know instantly where Pritesh got these .

As I entered the phalphool pasaley‘s joint, he immediately started to vent about how the world was so wrong going gaga over Messi (he’s a Ronaldo fanatic), I turned back to look towards the couple (they were right behind me at the checkout counter in Sajilo) – Sajilo is no more than 30 feet away from the phalphool pasaley. They came out chatting – Pritesh held a plastic bag with one hand and his girl’s the other as they dissapeared into the Purano Baneshwore 7 pm crowd.