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  attire whole villages dance for days. Archery  contests are always a part of such festivals.Our principal comes out of his office and makes a sign that we  should leave . One more holiday.

               Let us leave these ominous state affairs aside for some time and enter the colourful world that is our front garden. Apart from the obligatory badminton court and grass it is a riot of colours. Everything has come out of Amma 's hard work. Just a little help from us.  No jasmines and kanakambarams. Instead we have asters,poppies, calendula, phlox, snap dragons, geraniums, chrysanthemums, dahlias ,marigolds , zinnias and roses in all colours and sizes, carnations, gladioli,hollyhocks, cockscombs, samandhis with fragrant leaves, the list is endless. Sweet peas have their own frames. Daisies , daffodils and some roses are just weeds. Forget me nots are there at school and in some gardens but not ours.  So sad. Suddenly Appa realises that the free loading bees are at our nectar. One more scheme up his sleeve . From somewhere he gets a queen bee and a box hive. It is kept on the front veranda . Anyway we never enter through the front door, you already know that.  Then one day an unsuspecting gentleman  visiting us gets stung. Sometime after  the hullabaloo has died down the queen too flies away. We can live in peace for sometime before Appa's next venture.

              Before I take you to our  back garden please come with me to Nasira , ONGC colony in Assam. My sittappa is chief electrical eng. there. We have just started on our bus journey when president Zakir Hussain dies. What is it with our holidays and public figure deaths I don't know. We stay a night at  a BSF driver's house at Guwahati and proceed the next day. The ongc colony is set inside a beautiful tea estate . Colonial buildings, club houses,  libraries. Our cousins go to school on the colony bus to near by Sibsagar.  What strikes me is their sophistication and sense of style  they seem older than us. I see a refrigerator for the first time. We go for walks into the jungle. It is  swarming with leeches. Amma gets bitten . Within minutes the string like thing becomes as fat as a slug. Salt and alcohol at the club proves to be the remedy. No she doesn't take it internally, just sprinkles it on the beast and it falls down.

                 We return home . Mrs Tara Singh welcomes us with Sally