The Approval

( a nano fiction)

Rima took half a day off to visit her mother. As she stepped out in the heat encrusted afternoon, beads of sweat trickled down her face, and she could feel wet sticky patches on her underarm soaking her kurta. In such an unforgiving summer heat, she hated to let her hair flow. She wanted to bunch it all together and make a top knot, never mind she always hated it, to her it looked more like a bird nest, yet it she left it open. The bus was packed with people.The sits were all occupied and there were hardly any place to stand. People were standing so close to each other that she could smell their breath. Her open locks were disarranged in the heat and crowd, and she felt she couldn’t breathe. She fished out a rubber band out of her bag to tie it, then after second thought she slipped it into her hand. When the bus reached her stop she pushed her way out of the throng of people, once in the open she took huge gulps of fresh air, she felt a bit relieved. As she was walking to her mother’s house, she saw her mother standing in the terrace fanning herself with a sugar palm leaf bamboo hand fan. When she saw Rima, she drew her breadth in dismay, Rima dear again wrong choice of colour, today you should have worn a light colour kurta, a glance at you and I feel hotter. A patina of hardness descended on Rima, in one swift movement, she took the rubber band out of her hand, pulled all her hair back into a tight bun. The tattoo she had done a few weeks ago, a butterfly, was now completely visible.