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. No I don't drink and party ,banish that thought.  I take my home work and sit in a corner room , while the adults, gossip play cards, billiards, some drink and some dance in the main halls of the officers' mess.  It i s a sort of glorified crèche with children mostly girls. . Jatinder and family have left Shillong on their father's transfer. Now I have a Maharashtrian best friend just transferred  in .  We start going to these affairs  together ,when our parents are invited. Some daring girls who study in Loreto convent  get up to dance with the adults. We Central school types only stare  in wonder.

               There is one more club ,a harmless one  . The school food club.  Only the seniors are members. That only means , my elder brother and his friends. Their ambitious agenda: making and selling some snack items in school. They start their activities in style by making Kesari.  They have sold a few. Why is everyone spitting it out ,making faces? The whole vessel is given to me to polish off at no cost.  I am lucky  I am the sister being indulged. Ugh. Kesari made with mustard oil!.  We in the South may wonder at this. Mustard oil is what the Bengalis and Assamese cook with. Seenu had no idea about vanaspathi and ghee then , or someone has taken him for  a ride. Today all brothers are excellent cooks. 

                     This year all four of us are  in the same  school. Amma starts sending hot lunches through the orderly. This is when the  big fight ensues . Whenever Amma sends Dosais and stuffed paranthas ,we are left with only a little thayir sadam. All dosais and paranthas  being gobbled up by the elder and his gang. Poor things we have only the plums that have fallen from the trees to eat. The plums are not the round small ones you get here. They are almost fist sized slightly yellow tinged and deliciously sweet. They are called raja plums locally. There are natural springs under the plum trees , we wash the fruits and eat them. The principal objects . Accusations are traded back and forth at home. That is the end of our hot lunches.

                     Appa goes through another phase.Some   Wednesdays and Saturdays we go to the BSF centre to watch movies. Old black and white Hindi ones with a projector on a portable screen.  We can watch the movies lying down or sitting in chairs. One particular film had a good comedy track. Appa just loves watching it. So he gets the projector and reel home  and for days together we see that comedy part of the film again and again and yet again till our heads are ready to burst. 

                    We are saved from going stark raving mad , as we become very busy suddenly.