My earliest recollections go back to the days when everything seemed fun, joyous and blissful minus the pain. Everything around me appeared dazzling. And I enjoyed every moment of it.
Ours was a big house. It was an Assam type house, with the touch of aristocracy. The verandahs were big enough for me to roller skate. The corridors seemed like tunnels. My favourite zone was the living space which ran parallel to the drawing room and was separated by a wall with a glass door which I used as a canvas and muddled it with crayons! And adjacent to it was the huge kitchen cum dining area. This living space was a make shift kind of room transformed form a verandah. In one corner was the strong wooden table kept permanently to iron clothes. Next to it was an old cupboard where there were numerous books, my Dity’s sports trophies, old magazines and all the junk which was my favourite treasure hunt.
This was perhaps the most lived in space of the entire house. Everyone who came would walk through the long corridors passing through the bedrooms and would automatically take the left turn to reach this living room. The old arm chairs, the cane sofa with its lopsided cushions were more comfortable than sitting in the drawing room. The living room would be full of people. Either there were Koka’s friends – Khela Koka (Koka chess partner)… the group of another two stylish Aitas & one Koka who’d come everyday except for Thursdays and Saturdays for a game of bridge in the late afternoons. Or there would be the innumerable friends of Maa and Dity lounging there… or there would be Aita’s gang of Aitas – either gossiping or exchanging recipes or better sometimes Hemi (the girl who baby sat me) eavesdropping all this and much more all the while ironing clothes!
This sit up area was more so like a jaali –kamra. It had windows with netted frames all over. The jaali karma didn’t have a ceiling fan. The thought never came to anyone while converting the verandah to a room. And being fixed with netted window frames the room was quite breezy all throughout. My favourite besides the junk filled cupboard was sitting on the stair of the door which led further to the kitchen garden. Aita was an avid gardener. We grew everything at this kitchen garden with a few exceptions like salt, oil and rice! I loved sitting on this stair and gazing to the vegetable garden. I loved to see the greenery and the different shapes and sizes of the vegetables.
Srikant was Aita’s Man-Friday. He would look after the veggies in the backyard and flowers in the front yard, mow the lawn, trim the hedges with utmost care and diligence. And it was watering the plants which gave me some sort of joy. Srikant would never let me water the plants. He treated the plants like his own kids, what if I poured more than the required amount? But I loved watering plants. So everyday it took quite a dose of emotional blackmailing for Srikant to finally give me the hose-pipe!
Every winter Srikant would make a bed for me too and would ask me to plants peas, carrots, tomatoes and cabbage. That would be my guarded zone and I hated anyone messing up with those!
Ours was a big house. It was an Assam type house, with the touch of aristocracy. The verandahs were big enough for me to roller skate. The corridors seemed like tunnels. My favourite zone was the living space which ran parallel to the drawing room and was separated by a wall with a glass door which I used as a canvas and muddled it with crayons! And adjacent to it was the huge kitchen cum dining area. This living space was a make shift kind of room transformed form a verandah. In one corner was the strong wooden table kept permanently to iron clothes. Next to it was an old cupboard where there were numerous books, my Dity’s sports trophies, old magazines and all the junk which was my favourite treasure hunt.
This was perhaps the most lived in space of the entire house. Everyone who came would walk through the long corridors passing through the bedrooms and would automatically take the left turn to reach this living room. The old arm chairs, the cane sofa with its lopsided cushions were more comfortable than sitting in the drawing room. The living room would be full of people. Either there were Koka’s friends – Khela Koka (Koka chess partner)… the group of another two stylish Aitas & one Koka who’d come everyday except for Thursdays and Saturdays for a game of bridge in the late afternoons. Or there would be the innumerable friends of Maa and Dity lounging there… or there would be Aita’s gang of Aitas – either gossiping or exchanging recipes or better sometimes Hemi (the girl who baby sat me) eavesdropping all this and much more all the while ironing clothes!
This sit up area was more so like a jaali –kamra. It had windows with netted frames all over. The jaali karma didn’t have a ceiling fan. The thought never came to anyone while converting the verandah to a room. And being fixed with netted window frames the room was quite breezy all throughout. My favourite besides the junk filled cupboard was sitting on the stair of the door which led further to the kitchen garden. Aita was an avid gardener. We grew everything at this kitchen garden with a few exceptions like salt, oil and rice! I loved sitting on this stair and gazing to the vegetable garden. I loved to see the greenery and the different shapes and sizes of the vegetables.
Srikant was Aita’s Man-Friday. He would look after the veggies in the backyard and flowers in the front yard, mow the lawn, trim the hedges with utmost care and diligence. And it was watering the plants which gave me some sort of joy. Srikant would never let me water the plants. He treated the plants like his own kids, what if I poured more than the required amount? But I loved watering plants. So everyday it took quite a dose of emotional blackmailing for Srikant to finally give me the hose-pipe!
Every winter Srikant would make a bed for me too and would ask me to plants peas, carrots, tomatoes and cabbage. That would be my guarded zone and I hated anyone messing up with those!
I grew up amidst these simpler things of life. Yet everyday was never monotony. TV was unheard of. I vividly remember listening to the All India Radio every afternoon, when Aita & I would have our afternoon siesta. On very hot days we would lay a straw mat in the corridor, put the radio just above our heads. Aita would snooze within minutes but sleep never was easy to me. My mind wandered about in the gardens, to run after the butterflies, to poke around the cauliflowers, to pluck a few bogories or go and explore that cupboard again!
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