<img style="float: left;" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2022/feb/Rahul-op_e.jpg" alt="Rahul Da Cunha" width="200" height="69" />It was a momentous day. &ldquo;Feel like popping over for a cup of tea?&rdquo; Natasha aka Nats, my 18-year-old neighbour invited me over, something she had never done before.
I braced myself for her messy abode, imagining clothes strewn all over, dust laden surfaces, teenage posters.
My impressions, assumptions weren&rsquo;t wrong. Nats lived as she thought&mdash;sloppy, messy, feisty, all over the place, a kaleidoscope of chaos, disorder, millennial mayhem.
&ldquo;Your flat is uhm&hellip; lovely&hellip; uhm quite Bohemian,&rdquo; I attempted.
&ldquo;Nonsense dude, it&rsquo;s a mess, I couldn&rsquo;t be bothered&hellip; no one&rsquo;s really going to move in&hellip; haven&rsquo;t really found a worthwhile boy to share my space&hellip; so &lsquo;whateves&rsquo;!&rdquo; (Eye roll)
Placed in the middle of this couture confusion, was a giant iMac.
&ldquo;Rahul bruh&hellip; I&rsquo;m a graphic animator.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I uh&hellip; had no idea&hellip; apologies, I never asked what you do. What do you &lsquo;animate&rsquo;?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Come with me,&rdquo; she said.
And with that, Nats with the tats and the red streaked hair led me to a white pristine door in the flat. As we entered, she said, mysteriously...
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m taking you to where no man has been before&hellip; or woman&hellip; welcome to my Doja, Rahul San.&rdquo;
Then she unlocked the door &nbsp;to a room, unlike her outer room, one of quiet and calm.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Doja&hellip; that&rsquo;s a...,&rdquo; I began
&ldquo;Yeah, it&rsquo;s a Japanese meditation room. This is the other part of me,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp;
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re uhm half Japanese, Natasha?&rdquo; I asked nonplussed.
(Eyes roll, eye roll, combined with a deep breath &lsquo;Hrmpppph&rsquo;)
&ldquo;Jeez, Rahul uncle, I knew it was a mistake to let you into my secret world, don&rsquo;t be literal, dude. I have two sides to me, the outer and the inner.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Okay chill, Natasha, it&rsquo;s just that this uhm, room, is in stark contrast to the one outside. I cannot believe that this spitfire girl I know, has a spiritual side.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Yeah, this is my secret world, no one has been inside here, except you, you should feel honoured&hellip;&rdquo;
&ldquo;I am.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Nobody will understand this&hellip;.&rdquo;
Nat went very quiet.
&ldquo;Rahul San&hellip; this isn&rsquo;t just any room, it&rsquo;s a private chamber, it represents a side of me no one knows &hellip; no one should know&hellip; and if anyone ever does, I&rsquo;ll know who told on me, and I&rsquo;ll come after you.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry your secret is safe with me.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a &lsquo;Ninja&rsquo;, a &lsquo;Ninja&rsquo;,&rdquo; she offered, and showed me a tattoo on the back of her neck.
&ldquo;This is me, my Ninja avatar, Nyoki.&rdquo;
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re a Ninja, as in you cover your face, revealing only your eyes, you leap from rooftop to rooftop, stealthily, with a samurai sword, that kind of Ninja?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Yeah bruh in a manner of speaking, metaphorically&hellip; in my head&hellip; I close my eyes... and I&rsquo;m off&hellip;exploring worlds, righting wrong doings, occasionally resorting to vigilantism.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Okay Nats, tell me...&rdquo;
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s Nyoki&hellip; Rahul San, in here, it&rsquo;s Nyoki.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;And what did Nyoki do today?&rdquo;
&ldquo;I chopped my boss into many tiny bits,&rdquo; she said simply.
&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; I asked horrified.
&ldquo;Because he&rsquo;s El Creepo&hellip; and he&rsquo;s gotta be stopped&hellip; he was bothering all the women in the office, this morning he was smoking on the terrace, I crept up behind him, he just didn&rsquo;t see me coming&hellip; I sliced him up.&rdquo;
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s like in the TV show, Dexter.&rdquo;
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s in my head, Rahul bruh (eye roll)&hellip; try to expand your mind a little, this is fantasy&hellip; I live in two parallel universes, one, that&rsquo;s Natasha, is from Hoshiarpur, lives here in Mumbai, dealing with the nonsense that the city throws at me&hellip; and then I come in here, take one look at my Ninja tattoo, close my eyes, and I channel Nyoki, and I&rsquo;m outta here&hellip; got it? Anyway, gotta go now, Rahul bruh!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Wow, so are you now Nyoki, going to conquer new worlds&hellip; flying through space and time, locked in mortal combat and sword fights with evil samurais, engaging in espionage and assassinations&hellip; tell me, tell me, Nyoki?&rdquo; I asked fascinated.
&ldquo;No dude, now I&rsquo;m Natasha, going down to grab us some lunch, come?&rdquo; Nats smiled.&nbsp;
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com
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I braced myself for her messy abode, imagining clothes strewn all over, dust laden surfaces, teenage posters

Nats and her tats

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Nats and her tats

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