Vaide’s memories

Oddiyanam (8)    Sudarshan’s Upanayanam                  Fearfully Jayamma looks at her brother. Now what is he going to say. He returns all of Sugantha ‘s ornaments.                  I have fixed my son’s marriage. You keep your grandson with you for the time being , we will take over later. He should see his father atleast once a month.                    A man remarrying after a year of his wife’s death is nothing new. Jayamma however feels betrayed. See they have already found a substitute for my daughter. How can I face that interloper. So now every month on a Sunday the baby named Bala goes with the ayah to meet his father , stepmom and grandparents.                    The ayah returns and Jayamma has a thousand and one questions to ask about “that woman”. Once the ayah says , they no...

Oddiyanam (7)    The Independence year.              Here was her sweet daughter Sugantha . Whatever was she doing. She has collected the cow dung from the cowshed and is making veratti. Tears roll down the mother’s eyes . Oh ! how I brought up my daughter . Never a harsh word. Never has she spoiled her hands with such work. Always ,except for a few years in between, we have had a live in ayah to tend the garden and to do all outside jobs. Oh my poor, poor daughter.        ( I have seen my own mother make  those  dung cakes . So I don’t make much of this fuss. It was all in the days work in those days I feel.)             Jayamma can only curse her sister in law  who was also her sambandhi in her mind for her cruelty. . This monthly ritual continues,  teary eyes and all, till Sugantha becomes pregnant a year and a half  later and comes home to deliver a baby boy and th...

Oddiyanam ( 6)    Madras bombing                         Not to keep you guessing,  the gentleman visits Jayamma the same day. He is her second step brother. However he lives not at Nungambakkam but with his family at Purasaivakkam.            A man of many parts. Academic, finance, scouts, and a JP  Justice of Peace to boot. Step or not he was her brother from her side of the family.  So as soon as he asks for Sungantha’s hand in marriage for his son she is all smiles. ( See she was so beautiful, a good student  and  so demure just looking at her he decided. Okay enough,  that is what all crows say about their chick . That is my mind voice 😁)              The wedding is fixed for the next Thai . These  are however sombre times. The Second World War is going on. So far there have been many false alarms. People hav...

Oddiyanam (4) 1926 - 1930.             A beautiful girl baby with a full head of long hair is born to Jayamma . Jayamma is in the seventh heaven of delight. For the past few months she has been here at her parents house at Kanchipuram. She has been made to feel special. Mother has been making delicacies just for her.             The house is filled with the pitter patter of her  younger brothers’ feet. The three brothers are at ages 2 to 6. Most days the younger  two disappear suddenly. Where do they go. Amma rolls her eyes. They eat at a neighbours house she says. They like to feed your brothers . Why don’t I see those neighbours here in our house she questions. Some one lets her into the secret .The women belong to the class that we do not mention in polite society.                That family however has a traditional knowledge of secret ingredients for making a baby girl’s ...

Oddiyanam (5).    Sugantha.         Bhashyam the young Iyengar boy and Jayamma are the same age . Not only Jayamma but all inhabitants of that mansion hang on to his every word. His stories are so wonderful. Full of kings, queens, knights far away lands  and deeds of valour. Sometimes forgetting there are ladies present he would become more eloquent describing  the anatomy of some heroine.                      One enduring memory is of the boat ride he arranged along the Buckingham Canal upto Mahabalipuram and back.Oh what fun. Puliyodharai, thayir sadam with Vadam. Coffee in a kooja. Some of the tenants too accompanied them just to listen to him talk. The sun hiding behind the clouds was just the way they wanted it.                            All goods things come to an end.  He left the outhouse as he had now become a...

 Oddiyanam (3)  1926                             Married on the same day, will the lives of the two sisters be similar. The first  axe  comes from  the business family ,” no daughter in law of ours should go outside the home ,what about our prestige and standing in the community.”          So Jayamma happily stays at home to watch yet more trams plying on the roads. Janamma goes to school , is happy to learn Sanskrit at home too. She compels her younger sister to read Tamil and some English everyday.             One by one the brothers are born .Who better to look after them but our own Jayamma. By then the family shifts to their ancestral house at Kanchipuram very near the Varadarajar  temple.                Janamma the elder sister on reaching puberty is sent off with a lot of fanfare to ...

Oddiyanam (2) The two sisters.          The year is 1918. Jayamma is 8 and her elder sister Janamma is 10. They are living in the Sowcarpet  area. Their step siblings are much older than them. Their younger sister is a babe in arms. Their three younger brothers are yet to be born in the far away future.           Both girls go to the govt. girls school nearby. Janamma seems more mature and more shrewd for her age. Jayamma is the younger sister who just tags along. Janamma as the eldest child of his second wife is the apple of her father’s eye.               Back from school they would help their Amma with some household jobs. The elder sister would then  sit with  their  erudite scholarly Appa and learn the Grantham script. He was teaching her Sanskrit. Meanwhile Jayamma ‘s only pastime was sitting on the front steps and watching the trams plying to and fro.      ...

 The Oddiyanam.     (1)                             Jayamma turned 20 today. She feels  very old. No one has bothered about her birthday in her husband’s household. Her mother would atleast have made a payasam. Her numerous siblings and step siblings would have been clamouring for her mother’s attention, yet she would try to make the day special for Jayamma. Here ma in law was away at the village . No one else would even think about her.         Husband Srinivasan who worked as a clerk in the Saidapet treasury was late again. Was it a Guindy race day? Would he come smiling after his flutter or would he be morose and push her into deeper pits of dejection.           It is almost 7.00. Even if he had walked along the railway tracks as he usually did, he should be here at Rameswaram Road by 5.30. Who is that there at the end of the street ? only one pe...

 35 A             A friend asked whether my father was angry with me because he was orthodox. I replied no only because I was late. Here is what  my one brother has to share about Appa's religiousness  and orthodoxy during his service days. And as for Appa's religiosity, i dont think there was any. His prayers were more an act to set discipline for himself rather than anything else.  Typically he would read the prayer book for about 2 mins when his boot laces were being tied by the orderly- so much for orthodoxy.  I think to his credit, he never expected us to do anything closely religious unless we wanted to do it ourselves.  Though in later years he expresses strong opinions on religion, the only thing we knew growing up was that we were hindus nothing more.  In one instance he went out of the way to protect a Muslim BSFJawan (a Driver) of the BSF who was been in his opinion wrongly, accused of being a Pak spy (ask ...

The staid journey.(39)         Next year Appa retires. Annual holidays see us at Madanapalle. Yes Madanapalle famous for Rishi valley school and Banganapalli mangoes. He is in the NCC there.       We stay in the library of a church. The Father’s family lives next door. The library is stacked with books from floor to ceiling. We go for it with glee. Huh ! All of them deal with sermons and religion.   As usual we have a good holiday with visits to nearby places. Horseley hills and the Rishi valley school which is self contained.           We get right of entrance to the Basant college library and that makes us very happy.                     Later that year Amma   sets up house at Trichy and the boys come over from Chennai. I leave the hostel and become a day scholar in my 3 rd year. The youngest brother gets the national science talent scholarship.  ...

March to Dec 1971 Bangladesh. (38)     The first campus revolt was at the agricultural college Mymensingh . These students and other general public from Mymensingh, Tangail and Sylhet were the first to respond to the call of Tiger Khader Siddiqui to form the Mukti Bahini.          The top brass ask Appa to help the Mukti Bahini. Provide them with arms. So with an escort he subversively goes to Mymensingh and meets the Tiger. More than arms they need  demolition skills very urgently . This is to stop the Pakistani army from advancing. One Capt. Negi who has undergone commando training is to train them. Mukti Bahini cadres start crossing over and they have a camp at Tura.            An unfazed Amma would all the time accompany Appa to the border areas as a morale booster for the Indian citizens living there. Once when she was there a column of vehicles were passing on the other side. There was firing on both sides and A...

Wanderers (37)                       Appa thinks it is prudent to shift house from Shillong. The younger two brothers are to go to school in Tura.  Seenu there on his holiday helps in the reception for Indira Gandhi's visit . She comes by helicopter.                   Yesterday  I had posted about rosy cheeks. That is all okay. What you have to be wary of in Shillong is goitre. No iodine in the water. Till date I have a small swelling in my neck as a reminder . Well the all knowing Appa got me treated or I would have become  an imbecile.                 Here in college I join NCC and many college clubs. NCC so that I can attend camps instead of going on short holidays to the parents. First time I am getting to know girls from rural areas. First generation college goers. Hence their serious demeanour . Girls who have studied in RS Kris...

 Mukti Bahini.(36)                        Memories of Dewathang Bhutan never fade. Beautiful and clean. First January. We would like to get a few stamps as mementos , the post office is closed. We see all the spots there are to be seen. We are talking in Tamil and walking on the road. One man behind us rushes to us. Tamil ? He asks. His face lights up. We must have tea at his home he insists. The power of hearing your mother tongue in a distant land. His wife  too  when we meet her , is all smiles. We are saying our byes  after our tea and snacks , when my youngest brother catches sight of their dog and her litter of pups. He is so overcome that he forgets himself and goes to pet them.The mother gets at him. He is rushed to a hospital. A chance encounter, and now Appa is ringing him up every month to enquire after the health of his dog.            We return to Tura and back to S...

Sally and others of her ilk.(35)               Those really serious about students council etc made many disparaging  remarks about the principal 's choice of me as a leader. Other than escorting a visitor or two and introducing them to the staff and school I don't think I did much. One small glory however I got for the school. There was an intra city essay competition about  beautification of Shillong. I got the second prize beating those Loreto types.                 Then tragedy strikes the school. One very beloved teacher a Christian passes away. The school declares a holiday. The younger two brothers go  home.Great students' leader that I was , I had to go along with the staff to the burial as a show of respect. I reached home thinking that now I have done something extraordinary. Appa was on one of his visits from Tura. . I have been any number of times at the receiving end of Appa's ang...

 Cauliflower pickles.(34)                          We investigate the other side of the dak bungalow. The caretaker has good hearing. The one person who can sound like Appa ,his younger brother ,our ongc sittappa is there. Our sittappa is a jovial person. Later in life both my younger brothers become very close to him.  We return to Tura . Our sittappa accompanies us, he stays for a couple of days .                  Some days left of our holidays and we visit near by spots . Rivers, water falls and caves with stalagmites and stalactites. Sittappa leaves for Sibsagar.                  All the officers ‘ wives  are busy making mixed vegetable pickles. On the washing line they hang cauliflower  bits to dry . Later they will add preservatives  oil and vinegar. We  however are given the job of correcting some ...

 a la  Rahul Gandhi(33)                                                     We have been to Dawki border outpost from Shillong. We have gone there  for the Bazaar days too. Trading is done  between East Pakistan and Indian citizens on certain days. Their fish  or goats  for our vegetables and fruits. The BSF oversees these bazaars. Once there was a meeting between the top defence brasses on both sides. Amma was invited to dinner. We  children just sat in the dak bungalow. There was an exchange of gifts. The Indian side gave a chest of Assam tea.and some other things. What Amma got was a supposedly Dhaka muslin cloth. The colour ran on the first wash and looked like a rag afterwards. Money spent  for getting it stitched into a kameez  was a loss too. Another time Appa and the BSF top brass like IG s( yes police...

Tura (32)                         Appa comes on and off from Tura.  Tura is also Capt. Sangma's native place. Once in Shillong mr. Sangma invites all of us for a party at his house. Our class miss Irene Sangma is also there. There is drinking and dancing. Amma and I are rather side lined. We come away without eating as the dishes are not arranged as veg and non veg.  Amma is strict in this way. Pork and Beef she whispers to me.                      Appa has settled down well in Tura we know. He has started acting on some of his ideas. Garo hills abound with cane and bamboo. No cane industry as such. He brings some workers and some cane and they are to make furniture on an experimental basis for us.  Round side tables huge chairs smaller chairs are made to our satisfaction on our lawn with blow pipes to shape them.. Now they are ready to start a commercial ...

 Dosais and idlis(31)              A bagful of trinkets are given to us. We wrap each one of them separately with strips of paper so that their shapes are not discernible. This is for the lucky dip.           There is to be a dosa stall under Amma. Loads of batter is ground.             Did I tell you about Sqn. Ldr. Ganesan ,Appa's friend from Trichy. They met again when Appa was in the Ladakh region.On off days Appa would collect leaves for his Himalayan leaf collection album ,while his friend would be wooing and wedding a Sikkimese girl. Now that family with 2 boys are here in Shillong. We visit them. I am expecting an exotic lady in exotic dress who would serve us some exotic dish. There she is, a Sikkimese Mami grinding for the next days idli breakfast.             Dosa is an exotic dish here anyway. After school we rush to the fair grounds .Our sch...

Vegetables and more vegetables.(30)      Right near the back of the house is the bucket type thandoor chulha and our traditional  copper boiler for hot bathing water. The fuel for these ? From the milk man Amma gets cow dung and a sack of coal dust. She mixes both these and makes cakes to dry in the little sun we get. Almost a rural setting. Coal pieces  are also required for the drawing room fire place. Some are used for this thandoori chulha. Right side we have Chakravarthy keerai . Slightly pink tinged . Growing to a height of 3-4 feet . Nearby is the chow chow pandal. One chow chow to one leaf. With this pandal you can feed an army. No takers in the neighbourhood.  Appa was just now recollecting  that people were afraid to enter our house as we would saddle them with chow chows. We even made  halwa with it.  Like wise the white pumpkin. Appa says it is not our S Indian variety. I see no difference. This is plucked and kept year round on t...

GH(29) Before I go into the  busy mode, let me tell you about my new friend Anne Zela  Konwar. Assamese. Why do you never have any South Indian friends, studying as you are in a mixed school? Well let me tell you ,I did have an Andhra classmate . She had a sister in our school too. They would never eat lunch with us. Where do you think we would find them ?. The sister would be standing watch while my class mate would be running from pine tree to pine tree singing a Telugu film song. I know we SI s have a weakness for movies . But to make a spectacle of yourself  like some heroine in the Swiss alps.I dare not be seen hobnobbing  with her. Any way they left within a year.                Well Anne is  of another species altogether. The type that  become doctors or IAS officers. Her house is just there where our  road bifurcates . Her father is some govt. official. She studies in Loreto but is not the stuck up kind. ...

Clubs and more clubs(28)           We take to Sally.  She is a wily one. Don't be fooled by her  size. As soon as she can,  she starts  following the orderlies to their langar. More wholesome nourishment I suppose.              I am getting on in age . That must be the reason. Emotional memory being stronger I can remember my jealousy at seeing my cousins in Sibsagar fashionably dressed , their easy club visits. Only later something else clicks in. More than seeing his younger brother,  this trip itself was  one of Appa's projects. We are to get acquainted with the 2 leaves and a bud. In short Assam tea. We see the collection ,oxidation, fermentation, rolling, curing and drying processes. Then the separation into rolled, long and dust varieties. We buy a packet of each.              By some coincidence it is only after this visit that I too get into the club habit...

Bows and arrows (27)          Our neighbour returns from his tour minus Bertie. He refuses to meet our eyes. In a round about way we get the story. There has  been a panther attack. The officer has gone into the forest to investigate. He  returns to find Bertie gone. We have been brought up to never cry , never to show emotions. We cope up as well as we can. We would like to imagine that some East Pakistani kid finding the pup  near the border has kept him. Mrs Tara Singh promises us another pup from the next  litter. Me make a lot of promises to ourselves.             Meanwhile the APHLC is spearheading the movement for a separate state.  We  see sudden strikes .  Khasi and Jaintia youth in war paint and carrying bows and arrows are there at our school. Archery is one of the traditional sports of this land. We have been to the Nongkrem dance festival,  where in colourful  ageold  at...

Bertie Wooster. (26)          Last evening my youngest brother Sampath on a visit accused me of  not being true and hiding things that showed us in a bad light. No I am writing everything warts and all I said. Then why did you leave out that incident where you bluffed me. When? I was 4 or 5 years old ,you three gave me an orange ,asked me to sit at home and you went off to see that flubber movie .Even an elephant will have a shorter memory.          Mrs Tara Singh ,Jatinder 's mother calls me aside when I go to their house on the way home. A one month old Tibetan cocker spaniel pup  is passed on to me. He easily  fits in the palm of my hand. She wraps him up in a flannel cloth and I take him home in the pocket of my coat. I am slightly anxious about the reception. I need not have worried. Bertie Wooster is given a warm welcome. He is so tiny that we have to spoon feed him. Find sun spots for him to lie down in .He thrives....

Set theory and new maths.(25) You have to dissect frogs and cockroaches they whisper. This is enough to put me off biology for life. When we are asked to pick our electives in class 9  I choose the maths group.The principal asks me to reconsider. His problem? I am the only student  to have chosen it. New maths is being introduced. The teachers themselves have to undergo training in something  called set theory . A trained teacher will be here very late. I am adamant.             A month later I wish I had given in or taken a  group like geography or English. My problem? Since my elder brother who is in class 10 and also in the same group   has the text books, why go in for a duplicate set the high command at home decrees. I have a tough time juggling texts books  when both of us have consecutive classes. I would yell from below to my brother to the drop the books . Every one within a radius of 1 km can hear me except him. I wou...

Appa's schemes . (24)            A friend asked this question , raspberries in India?  Yes the orange wild variety  grows near Shillong. I remember Appa saying some thing about  fruit experimentations . Sometimes if they are not commercially viable they are left to grow wild. Once when returning from  a visit to Dawki which is a town on the Indo- East Pakistan (then) border Appa brought a sack of red berries.  As a little bit of sun had come out we were sun bathing. ( naturally fully covered, we are Indians) The berries were also left to dry. Of course we tried to eat it ,we are not angels. We discovered they were coffee berries . Collected from an abandoned plantation. Anyway I can tell you we had a hard job drying, roasting and grinding, only to find the coffee was not that great.              Another time Appa had another brain wave. He brought a sack of full betel nuts looking like miniature or...

 Raspberry pie (23)            Spring is on its way . The grass is greener and flowers brighter on the other side of the river . I cut the daisies and dandelions in bunches for the vases. I look out for the brothers. Elder one is playing cricket with the village crowd further down.  Sometime later he brings these friends home. Through the back door like us naturally. The front door is opened only for IP s and  fire place in the drawing room is lit only for VIP s. They come in a single file and enter his room. Proudly he shows them the crystal set he has made. Giving them a scientific lecture. They are shown his globe too. Any one fingering anything  else will be slapped they are warned.              The younger two are on the next hill. They have an old transistor radio with them . They are calculating some paces. To this day I don't know what they do there.  I know they have  became extremely...

Jungle trails.(22)                           It is Sunday morning, I have not said a word at home.  I am hoping against hope that my classmate Jatinder would have forgotten all about it , or that her parents would have stopped her from going to some strangers’house. I keep an eye out of the window . She is there on the dot exactly on time for a late Sunday morning breakfast. She is however accompanied by her elder sister Tarvinder Kaur who studies in class 10 at our school. Trembling I tell Appa why they are here . He is all bonhomie.He puts them at their ease at once. Saved. What's your father 's name, Major Tara Singh they answer. Grenadiers? He whips out a photo album ,both fathers  are there together. Ah! We are a happy family. The agony of the past two days are forgotten.             Poor Tarvinder Kaur she doesn't know what she has got herself into. Next year she goes to t...

Pouring rains and duckbacks ( 21)            It's a cliche to say it doesn't rain but  pours. But it is  literally true here. Not for one or two days  or weeks but for a steady 3 months. You can get used to anything. We wear duckbacks , a confusion of the brandname with the product. It is just a rubber backed raincoat. Where others wear gum boots we make do with our rubber hawai chappals. Appa's irrefutable logic ,  when there is no standing water to walk through why go for those uncomfortable things. We carry our regular black or canvas shoes as the day requires and wear them at school. Yes no standing water , every  drop has drained away to the valleys.                   If truth be told there is a bus service of sorts. It starts at the Umpling market about half a km on the way. The bus goes through the Nongthymmai market again about half a km from school. We can never be sure when the ...