The air around them jiggled with jollity. Five Punjabi women
on wanderlust by themselves, no marital benevolence in immediate attendance! Ensconced
in a privileged bubble of petulant peach, their Christian Dior bags hushed everyone
in range except the greasy lad on the first flight of his life to Bangkok with
his friends.
“Aunties, why are you going to Pattaya at your age? It is a
shame. You are going to bring a bad name to our country. You all should be
visiting Haridwar to take a religious dip in the Ganges. What are you going to
do on those beaches?”
The aisle erupted with rambunctious laughter. They wagged
their Mac nail paint tipped fingers at the young flock, “We specially picked
that town for all the hanky-panky that goes on there! Don’t you all know that the
new sixties are the new forties? And why
should the young people have all the fun?!” A fresh burst of merriment bubbled
out of them to see the boys beat their foreheads in disapproving despair.
Clad in designer linen, their fingers drooping with cocktail
rings that winked, the ladies radiated an odd air of earned brashness. They had
been good mothers and wives and had the self-assuredness of lives lived well enough, to
give themselves regular breaks such as the one they were on.
“We will be at the Hilton, Pattaya. The Jomtien beach is
better, a bit away and cleaner. Where will you all be staying?” they could afford
their friendliness. “We, well, we won an all-inclusive vacation giveaway, four
day, three night’s luxury at the Courtyard, South Pattaya,” the youngsters
responded gleefully. Several pairs of tended eyebrows shot up at this and remained
suspended under the colored hairlines until the two groups stopped to say
their goodbyes at the Suvarnabhumi airport luggage carousel. “Be good!” the
lads admonished the aunties indulgently. They were turning away when one of the
matrons beckoned the greasy one closer, “Here, take this, we have two. It is
our farewell gift to you all. Use it. Place it at a strategic point. These hotels are quick to compensate for poor
hygiene. If nothing else, you can threaten them with a bad review on
TripAdvisor.”
The bevy tittered away in the distance, leaving the curious
young men staring down in silence at the gift. It was a six inches long,
lifelike, realistic rubber lizard!
