FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The table is littered with secrets and dinner is eaten in atrocious silence.Smiles and pleasures.Doesn't he know? She thinks.Does she know?.He thinks.Delicate leaves
roll down the pale blue candle stand.Mrs. Newman fixes her hair.Jenny runs a hand
over her lips as she peers into her pocket mirror.Her lipstick is intact.Perfect she thinks as she slips the mirror into her purse again.Or is it? Yes there is a lot of thinking going on.We have quite a lavish dinner here that boasts of authentic spicy kebabs and strawberries dipped in warm chocolate sauce.We also have a specially recommended sea food menu that boasts of obnoxious flamboyance.The children giggle. The secrets are not for them.Pretty eyes carry out a conversation.No lies,no secrets..secrets if present are spilled out.Hey i got the cherry.I have more chocolate sauce on my dessert.I wore some of my mother's lipstick when she wasn't looking..she still isn't looking..do I look pretty? Look..new earrings. Look at this scar,my darn cat scratched me here.The truth and nothing more.The dinner goes on. The grown up conversations are yet to start.The champagne has been served.The children hurriedly slurp their sodas.They spot the garden.Can we go play? Umm..okay but come back soon.
Jenny checks her lipstick again.Still intact although there is a tinge of it on her champagne glass.A classic Revlon burgundy gifted to her on her last birthday by Bob.A relief from the usual heart shaped chocolates and roses that die the next day..men finally learn.But Bob is thinking of another color- heart wrenching crimson red.Blood red lips and nails that dug into him a week ago.Bob doesn't look at Jenny although she does glance at him from time to time.
Nina and Vish - the hosts.The Mehta's.The sophisticated lot.She a lawyer and he a geneticist. She earning twice as more and he working thrice as hard and studying nonetheless.
Charu and Manav the awkward teens - they grab their soda glasses and go to another room to watch Tv.Charu bespectacled,Manav with braces.They are excruciatingly bored.At 15 and 16 girls and boys, aware that they are indeed girls and boys don't make a great conversation.He was aware that she had monthly menstrual cycles and she was aware that he had a dick.Puberty and awareness..do they mix?
Well bananas,walnuts and chocolate chips do! that was Nina's special dessert.Manav helped his mom make it.But at 15 and 16 some teens do mix..the social lot of them,mix and blend excruciatingly well. Like vanilla and chocolate.The distinctness of the flavor and the insignificance of the individual ingredients.But awkwardness doesn't mix.It regains its individual identity.An identity that could be chopped up into a million pieces and still be retained in each of them.
We return to the dinner table-the delicate china,the aesthetic forks,the champagne glasses and a Russian salad.A full fledged conversation finally came to life like a fetus that pushed its way out of the womb.Life - conversation, conversation -- life.
Writer rule number one-Let your characters have the basic right of deciding who they are and what they want.They could have a dream or want a car.
The conversation now roared through the rust colored walls of the room.The talk was about philosophy.The philosophy of life..the award would go to the person who talked better crap and for a substantially longer period of time.The conversation initially began with politics.Jenny's lips twitched and Nina blinked and rolled her eyes more than twice (the usual rate.) Bob was lost in thought.Red was the thought.Crimson red..the lips,the nails,the lace.