AEOTM Chapter 6
Lullaby
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of fingers hitting the laptop keys echoed through the otherwise quiet hostel room. With her roommate gone for a family event, Ari had the space all to herself.
“And… done!” she announced dramatically, stretching her arms above her head and groaning. After an hour of working on her remote data-entry job, she padded over to the water tin in the corridor to refill her bottle.
It had been four days since her visit to the flower market—and equally four days since the two best friends had impulsively created a YouTube channel at the tea stall.
While Mira had volunteered to handle editing and channel maintenance, Ari knew the main responsibility of creating content rested on her shoulders. After all, what’s a YouTube channel without anything to post?
Mira had told her it was okay to take things slow, and Ari had agreed—wanting the first song to be special. But the thrill of doing something new made her pulse quicken. Unlike her usual indecisive self, she had settled on the theme that very day they created the channel, jotting down her thoughts and feelings during the metro ride back to the hostel. She decided to create a song about her encounter with Amy on the Metro. That night, Ari hardly slept, her mind buzzing with excitement and happiness, though a small part of her carried an inexplicable twinge of guilt and self-reproach.
For the past four days, Ari had been slowly shaping her first song. She approached it the way she once approached her school language essays, using the CODER method. She collected words that lingered in her mind, organized them into tentative lyrics, hummed possible tunes, adjusted lines, and refined them again and again. She didn’t know if this was the “right way" to make music, but it was alright as long as it worked for her. She’d managed to pen a few lines so far, saving the editing and final draft for when the tune to fit the lines came to her.
After a light meal, she padded down to the small shop near her hostel for a drink to complete her lunch. The shop, run by Praveen, an Andhra man, and his wife Geeta, sold fruit juices, buttermilk, and soft drinks. Over the years, Ari had picked up a bit of Telugu from the couple and had grown friendly with them.
“Hi, Anna! One packet of buttermilk, please,” she called cheerfully.
“Two minutes,” Praveen replied, gesturing the number ‘two’ with his hand while speaking rapidly on the phone in Telugu about something urgent. Ari gave an “okay” and settled into a chair tucked in the inner corner of the shop. Nearby, Geeta gently lulled their toddler to sleep.
“Hi, vadhina !” Ari whisper-yelled.
Geeta shushed her, a finger on her lips, holding the sleeping child close. Ari dramatically posed to zip her lips, earning a smile from Geeta. As Geeta hummed a soft lullaby, patting her child, Ari leaned in, curious. The tune was tender and familiar in a way she couldn’t quite place. When she asked about it, Geeta smiled and said it was a popular local lullaby—one her mother had sung to her as a child.
Something about the melody lingered.
A spark flickered in Ari’s mind— with a few tweaks, this tune could actually work for her song. She paid for her buttermilk and thanked Geeta, who looked mildly puzzled at the sudden gratitude. Then Ari hurried back to her room, a light bounce in her step.
Door slam --
-TBC-
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