Someone (Manjiri)

 Swapnil got up from his nap. His Mai was yelling at him, not to sleep at the dusk. So he got up and washed his face at the waterfilled drum near the door. He slipped on his slippers and headed towards the tapari at the nukkad. Mai was still nagging him to go help Hema at their subji thela but he ignored it. 

It appeared that there had been some spurious showers while he was asleep. Monsoon is here, Swapnil thought. He should go get the waterproof used flex for the windows as soon as possible. 

He had been awake all night. He had taken a job to take the tempo to Ratnagiri and bring the fish consignment back to Pune. Now after a nap he still felt the effects of the night driving. He felt like he was inside a fish tank looking out at his galli. Everything looked remote and distorted. 

He sat on the activa parked outside the tapari, and signaled Chotu for a cutting chai.  All the gang was not yet back from whatever they were doing during the day. So he was all alone at the tapari, being a fish, looking at the galli transform from sun dappled to dark as the evening descended. 

There was a boy and girl on the bike accross the road. He sitting on the bike, she standing near him, her face covered in the puneri daku style. They were engrossed in their gulugulu. Swapnil looked away, and saw an uncle walking determinedly to complete his 3 km walk. 

There was an activa passing on the road and it suddenly slipped in front of him. Two boys were riding it. Both really banged their knees. But picked themselves up and went off again. 

Swapnil kept drinking his tea. Then came a real Chavi girl, riding a scooty and slipped at the same point. Swapnil leapt from his seat. Went to mauka e vardat. The girl was not much harmed but surely shaken. Swapnil lifted her scooty. The girl from accross the road helped the girl up. They made sure that she was ok, nothing broken, helped her mount the scooty and sent her off on her way

Swapnil was back on his perch. Chotu bought another cutting chai for him and said "This is the fifth person slipping on the same spot. The sudden showers have made the road really sippery. Someone should keep a tree branch on that spot so that it will not happen again!"