3 Swirling T shirts IT'S A T SHIRT FOLDING contest Wapa says He makes room for me on the sofa They fold T shirts They do Have you ever heard of such a thing Wapa I say why would anyone want to take part in a T shirt folding contest See for yourself he says There are all kinds of crazy people in this crazy world my Minu My mother laughs Including those who sit around watching those crazy people fold T shirts A whistle tweets A dozen people on TV make a dozen rainbow colored piles of T shirts their hands flying as fast as Anil's karate punches It makes me dizzy to watch those swirling T shirts The room spins around me and the air is full of T shirts and there is no ground under my feet
anymore I gasp and clutch at the sofa Wapa pats me on the shoulder and the room steadies The whistle blows again Everyone stops The winner has folded thirty T shirts in sixty seconds That is only two seconds per T shirt That is fast I say able to breathe again Blink of an eye says Wapa How long would it take me to do a thing like that Many many blinks I think Which reminds me of those doves and their king and the hunter Where were these T shirt folding people with their flying hands when the doves needed help Wait That is in a story and this is real Give me a story any day Umma says You people want to practice folding clothes There's a whole clothesline full on the terrace Wapa turns off the TV The phone rings I'll get it he says He picks up the receiver with a cheery Hello But in a minute his face changes so I know who that is When he hangs up he says You know who that was Wapa's big brother Rafiq Uncle always has that effect on us He's coming to visit us asks Umma
Wapa nods But he's coming on business Maybe he'll be so busy he won't have time to criticize My mother shakes her head as if she knows that Rafiq Uncle will always have time for a few well chosen words to put her in her place She goes into a flurry of worrying about all the things in the flat that will need to be dusted and mopped and polished Suddenly the only tube of toothpaste we have left squeezed half empty that wasn't even a problem until now becomes just another sign of her bad housekeeping I'll get some more Wapa says He escapes leaving me to the mercy of Umma's duster
4 Just a Slogan THAT DUSTER IS a weapon Umma uses it against dust clutter and all signs of untidiness I retreat to my room which is what you might call a strategic move Just in case she takes it into her head that I need to be dusted off too In the safety of my room I try to make sense of things Something is bothering me about that book and it's not just the story It's Book Uncle I decide Why did he give me that funny look before he handed me that book As if he would like to say something but couldn't find the words He seemed distracted That's it As if something was on his mind Is something wrong Maybe I am just worrying for no reason I turn to the story in the hope that I can unravel its
