The horizon

Sailen Routray

Translated by Samprati Pani

Bindusagar Tank, Bhubaneswar
Photo Credit - commons.wikimedia.org/Government of Odisha

While returning from college, our vehicles—my Spectra and his Scooty—automatically turned into the Venus Inn lane in Bapuji Nagar. We were supposed to go to the Old Bus Stand to buy magazines. How we’d reached Bapuji Nagar, I had no idea.

Both of us stopped in front of the A.K. Mishra Bookshop. To mark our attendance, we went in and did a quick round. The Legouis and Cazamian he had ordered had not arrived. Neither had the Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters I’d ordered.

As we turned towards Venus Inn, he said, ‘I can’t eat paneer dosa!’

‘I’m not in the mood for Khatta Mitha’s chole bhature!’ I replied.

It was a December evening. The sun was on the horizon. Like our vehicles had involuntarily turned into Bapuji Nagar, our feet too turned towards Jagannatha Tiffin Shop. In those days, Jagannatha had not yet started dishing out snacks without onion and garlic. Just as we reached, Ranjan had probably taken out the singidas and put in the first batch of baras* into the hot oil. Seeing us, Ranjan, without uttering a word, served us four one-rupee singidas in a leaf bowl. No sooner had we demolished the piping hot singidas, Ranjan put two one-rupee baras in the same leaf bowl for me, and a couple for him in a fresh bowl.

After eating and making the payment, as we started our vehicles, he asked our customary question, ‘What did you like today—the bara or the singida?’

Refolding my shirt sleeves, I replied, ‘You’.

‘There’s no one as shameless as you.’ Saying this, he quickly started his Scooty and flew away into the horizon, like a dragonfly in Bhubaneshwar’s unseasonal storms.

The two ends of his scarf were the dragonfly’s wings.

Note: This English version of the story (originally written in Odia) was first published in the blog Chiragh Dilli as a part of the piece titled "The city, in love" on September 4, 2022. It is part of a larger series of stories set in Bhubaneswar. In her editorial note to the piece published in Chiragh Dilli, the translator Samprati Pani describes the series in the following words - "The stories are around the theme of ephemeral and routine encounters of love, or its possibility, located in places that serve as public and private landmarks of everyday life in the city."