The Night Market

Last Friday evening(Nov. 25), I went to the Night Market at Karunashraya.

This was the first time I was attending such an event and it turned out to be a good experience. I went there with some of my colleagues , in our office cab. We took, with us, a box full of old clothes, books and toys, all contributed to the Night Market by our colleagues.

The Night Market had several stalls selling old books, Chat items, ice-creams, cakes, noodles, clay pots, bags, cards and bead neacklaces made by the terminally ill cancer patients there.
There were also some stalls which had games like throwing darts, rings, bouncing bouncing-balls into a bucket, fishing beer bottles, horse-racing and also some card games. All the money collected by the stalls would go as contribution to their fund for taking care of the cancer patients.

While there was a game of housie going on in one place, people were busy eating their choice of food in another. Also, there was a magic show and ventriloquism by a lady.

I went on a shopping spree in the stall where old books were being sold for Rs.30 each. I bought 4 books. I hunted for thicker books and got hold of The Seventh Scroll and Monsoon, both by Wilbur Smith. I found another medium-sized book Angel by Barbara Taylor Bradford. The fourth book is a suspense thriller.

Of late, I have been buying books like crazy and now, I have more books than I can manage to read.

At another stall, I got a nice Mehendi design done on my palm. By then it was 8.00 p.m. and was drizzling already. I had to keep my mehendi designed hand safe from the rain drops.

I played some more games- tried fishing a beer bottle but just missed it at the last moment( we were given 2 minutes to try taking the bottle by its lid with the help of a long thin bamboo stick and a ring tied to its other end with a string).

8.30 p.m. and it was time to leave.

The return journey was not as smooth as I had thought it to be. We had to wait for our cab for 30-40 minutes, in the heavy rain. At last, when the cab arrived, we set out for our destination( our office) in the traffic jam-packed road. We were not even half-way to our place when the cab stopped all of a sudden. The driver said that there was a brake failure and that we couldn't go any further. So all of us got down and caught autos and the auto-drivers asked prices triple the usual fare.

It was 10 by the time I returned home, almost wet in the rain, after a small quarrel with the auto-driver regarding the fare and heavily laden with my file in one hand and my new collection of books in the other.

I went into the safe and cozy arms of my hard bed and soft quilt to spend a night full of sweet dreams( of my Prince Charming ) and the fact that it was a Friday night made my sleep more peaceful.