Azure looks out the window of her aquamarine car.
A young dark-hued woman, in a blue ruffled sari, nurses her baby under a blue tarp between four poles, by the side of a highway in India, near the already occupied bus station, which has a blue poster of a movie called “Variants of blue” — in which a young fair woman in blue ruffled sari sits with her children by the side of a highway in India.
A boy, the son of the young dark woman, ten, in a pair of blue shorts, rows a boat made of blue paper, on a black river made by rains scuttling by the station, his blue eyes focused on how to keep it dry. A girl, blue lips, covered in blue rags sitting by her brother, whoops with joy, her hair matted, her eyes small and anemic.
The three do not look at Azure and her aquamarine car. She’s not even cow-shit for them. Cow-shit is more important, in fact, for when it is dried well, it can be used as fuel.
The blue-sari woman continues gazing in the eyes of her babe, nine months old, his eyes blue. The boy continues to play with his paper boat. The girl in blue rags continues to whoop with joy as rain patters. But Azure is restless. She wants to help them. Somehow. Anyhow. She really does, and she thinks of a hundred ways, twirling with the strap of her blue handbag. She even picks up her iPhone and clicks their image, post it on Instagram with a caption–blue is not the warmest color.
But she is already late. For her nail job. And it rains. So, she tells her driver in a blue uniform — “Drive faster. Let them enjoy it. The rain…”
A dropout of various colleges, Nachi Keta is a Kidney Transplant Recipient and a neurodiverse writer from New Delhi. His works focus on mental health, oppression and the absurd in social and personal. One can find an updated list of his published works at [nachi-keta.com]. He [re]tweets at @KetaNachi.