Turtles in the Sky

Yet another project, for which I’ve been working hard since a long time, was put on hold today due to lack of finances. Recession is such a handy excuse. These days I don’t fret too much over such occurrences. I just loose the mood to work, at least for that day. Just then two of my colleagues called me out for a visit to a roadside tea stall. Weather was just right for sipping masala tea loaded with ginger. All the clouds had taken their position and were all set to pour over the city. Who wants to crib anymore?! 

We were just through with the tea that it started drizzling and I decided that I won’t stay confined to the office and let the rains go waste. In five minutes I was on the road and was joined by a friend. Well, it didn’t rain much but the clouds parted artistically to paint the sky inconspicuously beautiful – the kind of beauty that you don’t notice if you are too busy.

I just had to capture it, and in such cases I appreciate long waits at traffic signals. Today destiny had much more packed for the few extra moments spent at the signal.  

After having captured two frames I was still greedy for a third one. Just when I was about to ‘click’ a boy perched on the sidewalk foundation stone, said to me -

“What will you get by taking this photo?” 

I said “Nothing”, shrugged, smiled at him and got back to my frame. 

He spoke again – “Do you knw which is one animal that is not found in Delhi?” 

I was quite surprised at the question; I looked at him momentarily but decided to speak to him after finishing my shot. 

There was some bug with  the camera and realizing that there were barely a few seconds left for the signal to turn green, I turned to the boy. 

“Tell me which is that animal?” 

He said “Turtle” 

“Turtle?!” 

He said – “You won’t find it here. If you find it then I’ll reward you Rs500” 

I was amused and the signal turned green. 

I said to him “Ok, I am going to find one and if I do then I’ll bring it to you” 

He smirked. I revved up the engine and moved on. 

Two minutes later, me and my friend were looking at each other and wondering if there are any natural habitats for turtles in Delhi! To our knowledge there are none!! Rest of the evening was spent in trying to understand this ‘encounter’, and we still don’t have much of a clue! 

PS: the third frame came out blank!