narrative essay example
Two men, one wearing a T-shirt with pastel blue and white stripes, the other wearing a fake football jersey, started preparing to set up the tables for the next wave of people to attack. The jersey is blue and bears the names of various teams on it, the ones that stood out the most were the logos of Barcelona and Manchester United. Both were wearing khakis. They rolled up their sleeves, and then the curry stained thin sheet of paper, which contains occasional droppings of water and forgotten rice, together with the traditional, green, large banana leaves, which were being used to eat on instead of plates.
After the two of them rolled up the table sheet, a boy of fifteen years quickly brought a bucket with some mysterious mixture of chemicals and water, plunges an old cloth and wipes the table. He put the towel back into the bucket and brought another bucket, this time it was green with plain water, not the drinking water, but tap water and gently sprinkles it over the already dried tables.
Afterward, the two men from before promptly roll out a new roll of paper onto the sheet. At the end of the row, the striped man swiftly rips off the excess paper and lays it in the corner so that they can use another time. They repeat this also on the other row of aluminum tables.
The boy hands the man the packet of green banana leaves and gives the other one disposable plastic cups. The leaves are being placed on one row, parallel to the plastic cups with water on the other row. I wouldn’t recommend drinking the water if you are a mild germophobe because the man scoops the water out of a bucket with the plastic cup, and occasionally, you can see that he puts his hands in the water. After finishing their respective row, they move onto the next row until both rows are filled with plastic us and banana leaves.
The cavalry stormed into the all-white hall. The hall didn’t have any windows; only the array of tube lights kept the room lit. Luckily I get the seat closest to where the caterers were cooking; this was a strategic move that had two benefits to it. If I want any extra food, I could quickly call someone for more delicious food. The other benefit was that I could lower the chance of any awkward meetings with relatives. The marriage took place in the most prominent wedding hall in a 10km radius from the bride’s town. They live in an area which was too big and developed to be called a village, also too small to be considered as a town. My unbearable hunger leads me to have to eat by myself.
A young boy sits next to me, probably around six years old, as he is as tall as my 6-year-old nephew. He wears a cream-colored kurta and a pair of uncomfortable-looking blue jeans. The boy greets me with an unusual smile; when he smiled, his cheeks almost covered his eyes. There is no way he could see while he’s smiling. The boy was being fed by his mother, who was sitting on his right. She wears a green sari and almost enough gold; if sold, I’d probably manage to live off of it until I have grandchildren.
After I finished eating the sweets handed out by the boy in the football jersey, the man in the striped shirt spoons more than a cup of freshly steamed basmati rice onto my banana leaf, not too much later, another man comes and pours some lentil curry next to my rice. Now I could finally eat. They filled my green plate with a mix of brown, orange, green, and white. The rice mixed with the curry was smooth and creamy, like picking up a flat stone from a river, but soft like dough. It is warm, but not too hot. My plate was steaming, but it was still cold enough to eat it without burning my tongue.
After I finished my first serving, I hear the nadaswaram, a loud wooden instrument, and the thavil, a percussion instrument. This music signifies the bride and groom officially being a married couple. Everyone, even me, started to leave the dining hall to see the married couple. The quicker ones ran out, without even washing their hands. Furthermore, some of the red plastic chairs were also lying on the floor. Who would want to miss the final moments of the ceremony?