The Red Tip
A sweet cigarette at the school gate, and pedda mama's luna stops right there.
Outside a secunderabad school gate in 1995, gate uncle sells parle-g, poppins, big fun and phantom, white sugar sticks with a red tip that two boys hold and blow like heroes every evening at 3:45. One wednesday a grey luna stops at the gate, and on it sits pedda mama, a hindi teacher who has never smiled. He says nothing and rides away. When the boy reaches home, the luna is already parked inside.
