The Excerpt #3 for Discussion: from 'The Fragrance called Li Ling'

"I decided to reach out to all friends, readers and guests and seed some thoughts on 'An Other Tale of Two Cities'. This is the excerpt #3 from the book" 

from

Chapter 4 : The Fragrance called Li Ling

The next day, was not their lucky day. They bumped into a selfish crowd of players from other nations, who took over the entire practice tables at the Games Village. Kool and Joy were completely spaced out and had nowhere to practice. A few hours of practice for the competitors is like an Oasis for a desert traveler. Any amount of practice would not be enough. But what Kool and Joy got on that day, was just got to see a mirage of tables, they couldn’t play on and they had to move from table to table watching others possess and practice. Kool and Joy wanted practice badly and they moved to the stadium, where they had met Li the previous day. 

The Stadium was overcrowded as well with the local host teams. They approached a group of a particularly merry crowd of Chinese players, mostly boys and a few girls, who were poking fun at each other, playing and practicing. Encouraged by the friendly reception they got from Li the previous day, Kool, expected similar warmth and showed his teeth, beaming as he held out his hand to introduce himself, ‘Kool’, he said to the nearest player. The Chinese player responded with an ugly frown and stuck his middle finger towards Kool and shook his hips in a vulgar gesture. Kool was shocked and stepped back, instinctively, to shield Joy from the view. Thankfully, Joy was too innocent to understand the gesture, though she knew it to be a rude one and was offended nevertheless. As Kool tugged Joy by her arm and tried to walk away from the table, seething in anger and from humiliation, Joy obediently trotted behind him, unable to comprehend, if Kool made any mistake of etiquette, while trying to introduce himself. The whole company jeered at them in a very disgusting manner.

One of them, menacingly stepped in her way, stretching his palms towards her and folding his fingers, with his thumb struck up as though it was a gun. He coolly placed his ‘gun’ point blank on Joy’s ‘bindi’ decorated forehead as if her ‘bindi’, the dot, was the target, and crackled a thunderous blast, from the depth of his gut, louder and sharper than a gunshot. Then there was absolute silence… and the entire crowd exploded in laughter with him. This was the most terrible laughter Joy had ever heard. Joy believed for a moment that she had been shot, felt stoned unable to move her leaden feet, was grateful that Kool was dragging her away by her arm, while she was still trembling. The Chinese pulled his fingers from her forehead and blew the imaginary smoke from his pointed fingers; cowboy style and shouted obscenities along with a warning, ‘No more dots on your forehead, lady. My gun is itching to find its target. Next time it wouldn’t be bare fingers’. 

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Happy Reading :-) Merry interactions :-)

Ravi Krish

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