Startled

                                                                

Being the weekend as always she had made plans of going out. This day it was a music show; it was the first time that her daughter would be attending one. She was really excited to take her for it. As she was a music enthusiast she had a ray of hope that her daughter would eventually be one. She packed snacks for her daughter, change of clothes and some comfort toys to keep her entertained in case she gets bored.           Her mother, an uncle and aunt were also joining them for the show as this was a niche singer at the helm.

In the evening being her punctual self she started atleast 2 hrs earlier anticipating all kinds of traffic jam or any other blocks and reached venue an hour earlier. The venue was at the outskirts of the city and hence a huge place. As they entered they saw boats inside a pool kind of a place getting treated . There was a weird smelling mist around the place. They did not give it much of a thought and went to the entrance. As they were early and the seats were already booked there was no need to rush, however the doors to the hall would open only 5 mins before the show. This also means that the show would start half an hour after that; IST ‘ugh’. How people enjoy being late for everything and still think that’s the most irrelevant aspect of social life.

As the heat in the city was unbearable she thought of waiting just outside the hall with her daughter as it was cooler there. Mom, uncle and aunt went out to grab a bite as uncle had directly come from work and really needed an energy booster. Her daughter was happy to be outside as she also hates being locked inside the apartment and liked seeing new people and new places (but with her mom around).

After maybe about half an hour as her daughter was getting restless she thought of going out and finding her folks. The sun had set and it was cooler outside. As she stepped out the weird smelling mist hit her and she thought; why would they do something like this on the day of the show? However with her daughter tugging at her hands she moved forward and instead of moving in the direction of the canteen she went on a stroll towards the back side of the hall which is usually pretty deserted. As she sat by a bench and let her daughter run around the lawn. Suddenly she realized the mist had thickened and she went closer to her daughter to take her back. As they were going to walk back they spotted a deer and then another and then another and in a minute they were all running towards them. She picked her daughter and started towards the hall; realizing they had wandered towards the end of the lawn and also to their horror the start of the forest. She knew that she should not be running and was quickly wondering what to do to get time for the guards to come for help and at the same time distract or scare the deer. She rummaged into her handbag and suddenly her hand spotted her daughter’s whistle. She knew that this was it, the noisy thing which is really loud and normally irritates her might actually be the perfect thing for now. She started blowing the whistle non-stop. The deer were startled and stopped in their tracks and also started moving back a few steps. In about 5 mins from the corner of her eyes she saw that about 2 guards were rushing towards them. She didn’t stop the whistling until they were there and then she just ran outside the lawn. The guards were trained for handling such situations being close to the forest. She hugged her daughter and went towards the hall and saw her folks waiting outside the hall.

As she opened her eyes she realized that she was dreaming. Of course Bangalore and spotting deer outside a hall where a music show is happening. Come on. Anyways she quickly rushed her daughter to get up as she had to reach the show on time.