Story 3 - Burning Rubber

Walking inside the cycle shop, the aroma of fresh samosas and ginger tea from the neighboring shop mixed with the smell of grease and labour pushed me to nostalgia. As a kid, I have come here exactly at 4 in the evening for 12 years. Running from school after the final bell, I would throw my bag in the ground and take a spanner. "Don't spoil your uniform! Change your dress and eat first" - dad would chide. Grudgingly, I would change to my oil stained shirt and trouser and gulp down the samosa and tea to go back to clutching my spanner again. Dad had let me play with his tools since I was 4 years old - from breaking toys, I had moved on to fixing and building bikes. Even after a master's degree in mechanical engineering and working in a dream job, I would still say dad is the best teacher I have ever had. 

The neighboring shop keeper came in and smiled "Karthick! Va pa! Epo vanda ooruku? Evlo periavan agita! Samosa and tea sapidu" (karthick! When did you come here. You look so grown up. Have some samosa and tea). I thank him and have the samosas and tea - this time cherishing every little bite instead of gulping it down. We chit chat for a while as I look at my frailing dad work on a Royal Enfield engine. I pick up a spanner and sit next to dad - "Don't spoil your dress, karthick!" He chides. I laugh and tell him it is okay as we go about fixing the engine. I notice how his hands still have the same elegance as it once had when he cuts a wire. Age has affected his health and memories - but fixing a bike was still in his flesh. As we finish our work and walk back home - I hold on to his hands as he almost falls twice. I wonder how he does it alone everyday. I beg him again to come with me to the city. He refuses as always. "The shop is where my soul is, without it I will just be a body" he says. We walk in silence. That night, I visited the shop again and played with my toolset. This was the first time I was in the shop without dad. As I walked out from the shop that night, all that I could smell was burning rubber.

Sometimes, you need to burn a soul to save a body.