10 years after

The last time I went to my maternal grandfather’s was in 1998.it was an occasion of my uncle’s dadan mama’s tilak function.i returned in 2 days.that time I was suffering from high fever and I was very upset by the fact that they didn’t even had a thermometer in pathak house.after returning back I went to patna becoz my summer vacation had came to an end.after some times I came to know that as I didn’t enjoyed that tilak function my relatives from my maternal side believed that I was very rude and arrogant.
Time passed and I lost relation with my parents.that was when I had just completed my intermediate.they didn’t helped me to study further.everybody knew this and apart from my relatives from paternal side no body helped me.i was expecting a bit help from them also.my maternal side never cared in what condition I was living,so I started hating them.
My uncle has married my mother’s younger sister.
This year in march when I came to bettiah in holi vacation my aunt told me that she had a plan to visit her father in holi.i had no other option,I had to go with her. I was very nervous. You can imagine , living for ten days with the people I hated ! even the thought was horrifying me.but I could not do anything.i started my packing sadly.
On 21st march my cousins wrote their last paper of final exam.at 4 in the evening my aunt ,my cousin priyam,shini,and me kept our luggage in the bolero which was taken on rent and went to the school to pick rest kids for our journey.one of my cousins piyush was son of my maternal uncle.he was also to come with us. We picked them and our journey started.
It was sunset time.i still remember those beautiful natural scenes,thosetall trees,smell of smoke, huge orange ball of sun setting……I was feeling senti. Just becoz after so many years I was viewing these sights. After sunset we reached ramnagar.our destination was still far. We had to go to interior village.
My heart was beating very fast.how will I face them? This question was eating me up.but I didn’t told anyone how I was feeling. All my five cousins were so excited and I was pretending to do so. When the bolero took a last turn I knew pathak house has came. It was a lovely moonlit night.bolero stopped and suddenly a noise aroused when our other cousins came up for our welcome. I was feeling a bit shy when my younger cousins touched my feet for blessings.
We entered the house,I took blessings from my grandfather,uncles and aunts. Everybody was asking—after how many years are u here?
And I replied shyly—after ten years.
There were so many people in that house,including us! If I count myself in kids then there were nine elders and eleven kids……and a lot of noise.everyone was busy in talking. I took my dinner with my cousins and we came out for playing. We started playing lock and key. I was not willing to play but my sisters compelled me.when I was den I got tired very soon.i was not in a habit of running as I am overweight and lazy. So I dropped the game. After sometimes we went upstairs for sleeping. My sis shini and I was in one room.our room was close to room of my uncle whom we called badka mama.after that was room of my uncle and aunt.with them priyam was sleeping. Then was a small area where all three sons of badka mama(kannu,piyush n chotu) were to sleep.this was attached to the last room in which rest kids were sleeping. And rest people had their rooms downstairs. I was surprised to had a sound sleep,becoz at any new place normally I am not comfortable in sleeping.
The night was cool.as cool breeze was coming from masan.this place masan was just like a beach.it has a small waterplace and white sand spread in a kilometer.
Next day I woke up early in the morning at five.this too was against my nature as I like sleeping till seven. I took a round of the house but everyone was sleeping.i returned back to my bed.
My maternal grandfather has one more brother who was living in that house only but there is partition in between.when you will look pathak house from outside u will find that our portion was cleaner,more lighted and more arranged while their share was dirty.the walls were almost black in color and the rooms seems dark….it is just a matter of how you are maintaining your house!
Anyways,at seven that morning we cleaned our teeth at the handpump which was located outside the kitchen.as soon as I washed my face badki mami,wife of badka mama,offered me breakfast.she wanted me to either have curd and pressed rice grains bole toh dahi-chura or our all time favourite breakfast item-khichdi with ghee. I ate a plate of khichdi.
All of my cousins went to play afterwards and I sat down outside the kitchen and took part in the conversation going on between aunty and the two mamis. I was getting very bore becoz at my age I was neither eligible to play in the group of kids of age group six to seventeen, nor I was eligible to talk with people of age group 40+. But instead of going out and running,I preferred to sit and listen to the conversation. Issi mein meri bhalai thi!
The day was very boring. I had nothing to do. Whole day I was answering people,after how many years I was in murera,how much I have studied,what I do and all the boring questions of this sort. Evening was a bit good. I went upstairs and sat below the open sky on a chair for an hour watching the sunset and having the smell of smoke coming from the kitchen below. At villages people usually use fire for cooking food…and I like that smell very much.
Next day was holi.shini told that night, that when the cousins will sleep then she will go to their rooms and do their makeup,especially of boys. But I was not sure coz if bychance they get up then she will be thrashed for sure. I am elder so no one is going to take revenge from me for make up. I stopped her but she was not ready to listen anything. She took out her lip liner and we went to sleep. At one she woke me.she took the torch and lip liner and we came out of our room silently. First we went to that area where the three boys were sleeping. She lighted the torch to each one’s face. Kannu’s face was covered, chotu was sleeping in between and piyush was at another end.
“oh!how will I paint them?” shini was confused.
“what can I do then?” I said.
“you just get in the mosquito net and do chotu’s makeup” she ordered me.
“listen I am not going to do all this nonsense type of thing” my voice grew louder.
“shshshhh!!! You will wake everyone”
“why don’t you paint piyush?”
“he is in my party”she replied.
Then we went in the next room. Now I holded the torch and she did make over of chikki,bonu,manvi and rishu(son of dadan mama).
We returned back to our room and again I slept. Only I slept coz shini was very excited by her holi plans so she was awakened by her excitement. Soon I slept. She again woke at 3 in the morning and did make up of piyush and chotu…kannu’s face was still covered with blanket.there was another problem for shini that how she could paint his face as his face was covered with hairs![his joint dense eyebrows,moustache beard] .she returned back planning for rest of the day.
Next morning when again I cleaned my teeth and washed my face,badki mami and rinki mami(wife of dadan mama) offered me dahi-chura. I asked shini why they always insist me to eat dahi-chura? She explained that I was their special guest so I was getting this special treatment and that’s why I was offered with this special breakfast.
At seven in the morning I started coloring my sisters.except big boys I colored every kid. Surely this was my best holi ever.
After sometimes we got upstairs and stood in the balcony. Shini was holding a glass of plain water for kannu. She was waiting him to pass below the balcony and then she would throw the water.suddenly we saw him coming . he was running ,she threw the water and guess what? The glass full water fell on the body of nunuaa ji( brother of our nanaji.).he started screaming as if we have thrown nuclear bomb on him. He yelled for a couple of hours and cursed that unknown enemy who threw water on him.
Then I chased chikki all over the house,from our side to nunuaa ji’s side, and I rubbed dough made up of wheat flour,sugar and water all over her body. Becoz chikki said she is allergic to colors and this dough is natural so it wont make rashes on her face.
And then we all got a good scolding from daddy(my uncle,Shini’s dad) coz we all were making a lot of noise.
The food at murera was filled with only red chillies. I always kept a big hanky for cleaning my nose…..
But one day I ate 4 plates of chowmein made by a professional cook who was a neighbour.and that chowmein was really very much tastey.
The day after holi was also very boring. Kids went out for playing and I kept on sleeping full day. What to do at an unknown place? Sleeping was the right choice of work.
Next day we all went to see the land nearby where dadan mama was growing crops. He started testing how much we know about crops and luckily I got one question correct. Everyone was laughing at our silly answers. But it was fun.
When we returned home nunuaaji caught me and he started asking silly questions about my family matter,especially about my parents…. I was stuck for 10 minutes and then suddenly piyush came and said “punti didi, baby bua(my aunty) is calling you” and then I took leave and went in. from that day I never went out.
Next day I saw playing cards in the hand of rishu and I got an idea…. I called all the kids and taught them to play trump with cards. Soon everyone learnt and then from that time full day we played cards. Those playing cards were of nanaji, he was searching for them and we had to return them and one card was lost by us so rishu was thrashed by nanaji for stealing his cards.
When the cards were gone we felt bore so I decided to get one from market. I gave money to vineet (grandson of nunuaaji). Vineet was the one from nunuaaji’s family who always played wid us. I liked him a lot. He always use to lose the card game but was very interesting person. Every time he got cards he said “this time I m gonna win , I will make 100 points” but each time he got negative points. So he bought the cards for me and our game once again started.
We only left our place for breakfast and lunch,we kept playing and getting scoldings from elders. While playing piyush played radio mirchi. We listened so much that we broke that radio which we have borrowed from rajan mama, who is our younger uncle from maternal side. One day radio was on. We girls were in aunty’s room and outside its window boys were on their bed. As usual radio was on. Suddenly a small ad based on aids proram came. The speaker was lallan bihari. He spoke a sher “pyar mein jo kare wafa usse wafadar kahte hain” and suddenly Shini shouted “listen,quiet everyone suno kitna achcha sher aa raha hai”
I tried to stop her slowly coz I knw what was in that sher but she didn’t heard me. Then when lallan bihari completed the sher by saying “pyar mein jo kare wafa usse wafadar kahte hain aur jo kare c****m ka isstemal usse samajhdar kahte hain”
Shini started blushing. Chotu hid his face in a pillow and started laughing. Kannu and piyush was smiling…and I wanted to laugh like hell…. From that day we tease her by calling her “lallan bihari” these two words are enough to embarrass her.
Every nite in our room a very old lady use to make her bed and sleep on the floor. She was called as “bhelra bua” or whatever! I use to call her bodyguard. At any time in night if we wake we always found her awakened. Her hearing power was also very strong at that age. There was a soul of a dead woman who was called “nawki eeaa”(new grandmother) in stories.
We used to call her “nokia” in short cut. I was really scared by her name during night. One day we planned to play cards whole night. Vineet didn’t joined us. Our game started at nine in the night. We played less and chatted more. At 12 in the night Shini accepted the challenge to go on the terrace and call nokia. She moved that way and we all tried to stop her. I was really very much scared but Shini was not.she completed the challenge.
At 2 in the morning we went in our room. I said while entering the room “ kahi nokia na aa jaye,mujhe toh heart attack ho jayega” to Shini. And body guard replied “ nawki eeaa? Wo kya karegi? Yahi to darwaze per khadi hai. Kya kar legi?” although I had whispered but body guard was more attentive.
One day early in the morning at 5 badka mama took us to masaan. For the first time I was at any place like this. I have never been to a beech but masaan was not lesser than any beach. That place was very beautiful. Chikki and me made a pair and we went in water. It was only half feet deep as the water has dried but the remaining water was continuously moving. Small fishes were there. We tried a lot to catch a fish but whenever we did it slipped from our hand. We were their for nearly 2 hours. And I enjoyed a lot.
That day dadan mama called that cook who was supposed to prepare chowmein for us. He came and made 7 kids his assistant. When chikki and me saw he was taking help,we went upstairs. Someone was peeling carrot, someone was filling water from handpump, someone was peeling garlic……… it was better to come down after all the work was done so we went up.
I came to knew that boys were very scared with me coz badka mama had told them earlier that punti is very hot tempered and she doesn’t forgive easily. So boys made a distance with me but when we started playing cards together they realized that I am also a normal human being and whatever badka mama told them was just a joke.
When chowmein was ready we came down. It was very tastey. I ate with spoon coz their was no fork but Shini and chhotu were trying to eat with bamboo sticks….they were learning how to eat with chopsticks..but failed to do so . so at last they gave up.
Last few days were really interesting and on one fine morning we returned back with a promise to visit them again…………………and except food my trip was good. And again I m getting invitation to come to murera…………!!!! Happy ending!