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  enterprise. 

                      Quarterly pooja holidays we go to  Tura. Not cold  almost a plateau. We are in the BSF compound itself. We are surrounded by jackfruit and mango trees. Behind our house as far as the eye can see are pineapples. Some papaya trees here and there. We  had a sweet potato garden appa says, it was completely  wiped out by wild pigs. Day starts with the bugle call next door.

                        Did I tell you I have been learning ikebana. That punjabi boy (of the sambar licking taunt) has an elder sister. She comes as a replacement teacher once and casually tells us  she conducts ikebana classes. I join up. Flowers, roots,  twigs leaves I can collect. She wants vases in different sizes . Some I get. She talks about the 3 elements earth, sky and the human. The arrangement should balance these. Too highbrow anyway. What I am getting at is all these arrangements need pinholders. They are pointed  brass nails on a firm base for holding flowers.The ones you get in the shops are no good, they tilt easily . Now here in Tura Appa makes for me the best pinholders . There is some arrangement for recycling ,used lead ammunition  after target practice. Paltry amount  in exchange. Appa would get these used lead pieces  and  using brass pins he has made the  most satisfying pin holders. Getting more ambitious he made  a Nataraja also. using a mould . We still have it. Later he made some 5 or 6 Natarajas and gave them to various government offices. 

                  We are here for the pooja holidays. Last year our next door neighbour in Shillong was a miss Bhattacharya , she is one of our teachers and lives with her family. Whole year they would be vegetarians eating only fish. On pooja day they would get a goat and slaughter it. Knowing this Amma would blackout the house. No peeping. Here without any prior intimation and probably wanting to toughen us up Appa takes us to just  that very place of slaughter . Sight only for the stout hearted. We run home.

                  You just can't stop Appa. He gets whole cashews with their fruits from some orchard. We separate the fruit from the seed. On a kadai with sand we roast the cashews. Cool it break it the best we can. No easy buying from shops for us.The fruit is what Appa has his eye on .We find the fruit does something funny to our throat. Appa however is going to make feni like the Goans. No we are not tasting that.

              It is a sort of coincidence.  The highest ranking defence person here in Tura  is Appa . The  IPS officer is  RK Raghavan. Yes he later becomes the director of CB I. The  IAS officer is mr. Ramakrishnan. The three Rs all madrasis.

        

              Mrs Ramakrishnan introduces us to Thuglak magazine. Mrs Shanta Raghavan is a very sweet lady .  She shows us snaps of her son ,who is with his grandparents in Madras.

          Whenever reminded of mr. Ramakrishnan Appa will narrate this incident. Mr. Ramakrishnan came to appa's home when Appa was away at the border.  It was very late in the night. He wanted something to eat. The orderly said please wait I will cook something. The IAS officer asked , do you not have Palaya sadam.  Of course he had that ! Appa's house without Palaya sadam. ? He ate  it with relish with pickles. The orderly can only wonder at these madrasis and their liking for watered rice.

             We are visiting the border areas with Appa.