The Last Cuppa...

The fragrance of the boiling tea awakened her sleepy eyes. The citronella grass tweaked into her nostrils forcing her still heavy with sleep eyelids to flutter awake.

How she loved that fragrance of the tea! Tea was a very important part of her life. No, not Tej, not Amma, not Pinky and not at all Appaji. It was tea, her muse, her love, all the way. Tea was her alarm, Tea was her first morsel of food, she could term, that brought life into her body; Tea was her incense that invigorated the spirituality within; Tea was her ginseng that awakened her potency to create. One could even say she was incomplete without Tea.

Her entire day revolved around her Cuppa. She planned all her activities around it. Be it even a date with Tej, which was always at her favourite place 'Chais', at her favourite corner. She would turn all Kali, if someone even offered to take her out to have coffee. ' Coffee????' she would sneer, 'what makes people have coffee, its just a berry concoction...huh'. Believe me you, never ever would she even see that person ever again. Such was her love for tea.

As the smell of the tea awakened her completely, she jumped out ,head

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ed straight to the kitchen to get her cuppa. Sipping it idly and enjoying it, she looked at the sky, which was weirdly orangish red that day. It seemed the Devas had vanquished the Asuras, and had left behind a bloodied sky. She had to complete her client meeting before the noon tea. That was her goal set. She got ready and left hoping that the Traffic Gods would favour her and spare her the traffic war. It seemed that her tea had been made at a very auspicious time, the roads were bizarrely clear. She drove to her office, reaching in record time. 'Yes!' she said to herself, ' I have time for a bonus cuppa !'

The client had changed the venue, to her favourite 'Chais'. 'What a whammy' she smiled extra-charged. The client was to come at 10:30 a.m. It was 11:00 already. She decided to order her favourite, 'Storm in a Cuppa'. As she sat planning her conversation, she saw the cuppa making its way towards her as though calling out to her telling 'Drink Me'. 'Of course, I will!' The cuppa on her table, she picked it up. The glass shattered and the top of a car breezed through her neck. Her hand still had the cuppa, with the last sip trailing down her lips.