Nov 28, 2008

The Man Who Clapped

He sat on the side of the road, under the bus stop's shelter. His Armani suit getting dirty from the dust flying around, his impeccably polished black shoes turning something close to camel color and his black gelled back hair turning brown.

But the man continued clapping. He sat cross-legged in the dust and clapped a rhythm with the steady taps of the fingers of one hand on the other palm. His head lost somewhere in the lands behind his closed eyes. His clapping made out a rhythm sad and melancholy, calling some Spanish senorita to one last dance.

Some dusky beauty with a twirling skirt, anklets on her feet, legs brown in the sun, clothes clean, yet stained with dirt and sweat of her life, her hair black as the night, tied up with a bandana the color of rainbows.

The man opened his eyes and looked at the girl, so unlike the girl in his mind, who threw a coin in front of him. He continued with his clapping, a beat now asking questions, cajoling, and teasing a reply out of the new listener. The hair gel in his hair melted slowly and shone on his head like a balm for madness.

The girl looked down at him, smiled, and said, "Sorry hon, not today, maybe tomorrow."

The man smiled back, nodded and kept on clapping.

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The slow net connection almost seemed determined to not let me post the story before 12 today, but well, here we are, 11.41 PM IST. This one was inspired by the beggar I saw on the bus station who was asking for, well, money, but then I thought, hey put him in a sit and see how many people will give him money. And then, would babes pay him more attention than they were doing at that moment? Ah, I digress. 

10 comments:

  1. didn't really get the end properly :|

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  2. Umang...

    Very frankly, neither did I :P

    Maybe, its about hope of a madman? Dunno, not too sure. What do you think its about?
    :)
    N

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  3. heeh heeh. armani is armani. and a goodlooking beggar in an armani would make me call him 'hon' anyday.

    yesI'mthatdesperate/materialistic.
    blah.
    xD

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  4. ok contradiction in terms. but then whattheheck.

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  5. Jadis...

    oh ah, looking for good looking beggars now? Superb! :D

    Materialism is ok, if the material is good ;)

    Huazzah!

    N

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  6. a beggar in an armani...nowhere else can any1 come up with this kinda stuff man..lol! keep it up! :-D

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  7. Doesn't seem to be a beggar anymore.
    More of a hungry soul.

    Heck. Armani is everywhere. So commonplace. Why don't you don a puma on your next character? Or levi strauss?
    Even I seem to digress. You're so contingent.

    I didn't half get the ending too, but anyway, do we care here?

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  8. Harshad...
    We try our best man, all else, whatever the voices tell us to write. :P


    MOnk-E...
    We really don't care if you get the end or not, but we do care that you should have fun reading :D


    Cheers!

    N

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  9. This isn't your usual kind, but it was interesting all the same...
    BUT! I shall nitpick.
    Typo in paragraph 4! :P "hair get", you wrote. "Hair gel" it should be, possibly. :P :P :P
    Yeah, I'm too critical, so I've been told. xP

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  10. Now as long as I have the Armani, I don't mind being a beggar :P

    Loved the fourth para :D

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