Blast from the past!

As I sat down on that huge wide window pane after surviving that nightmare, I had only one thing to remember. “Believe in me and I will take care of the rest”, I had heard Him telling me last time.

~

I had forced myself to sleep that night. I was still trying to understand who could’ve sent me that letter. At an unexpected hour. After 16 long years. Should I open that letter? Should I wait for some more time before I open and read what is written inside?

It is only 10:30 pm. I have been trying to sleep from 9:30 pm after a few spoons of soup and half the bread. Although I stay alone and I survive the nightmares on my own, I felt I needed someone to feel not so scared. I had kept the envelope just next to me so that I could read it whenever I was ready. I didn’t have the courage to face another life altering truth again after having accepted what had happened last time.

~

As I sat to open the envelope, I could feel my heart beating faster. I started cutting the edge of the envelope so that the letter stays intact. I looked through the impression again and cut open the envelope and took out the letter. It was addressed on his name.

We had stopped getting letters on his name once we announced his death. People reacted and all communications stopped afterwards. Then who sent this letter to him?

I opened and started reading…

Dear Sir,                                                                                                                       Date: 27.2.2000

I am writing to you with regards to the performance of your wife as a mother towards your daughter. Although we have discussed this several times in person, there has been no action taken from your side. This has prompted me to write a letter.

You wife, i.e. my mother, is an extremely nice woman. She wakes early in the morning, worships her God and starts cooking for us. She ensures that we all eat and go to school and office on time. But her entire persona changes the moment I come back home from school. Although she cooks some snacks for me, she is more interested in what I studied in school, my exam schedule and which chapters are still pending for me to study. I do not understand why can’t she keep my studies and my scores confidential and has to discuss the same with you every time there is a slight dip in my scores. None of my friends’ fathers are known to have a clue about their scores. Then, why should she involve you?

The matter is getting out of hand now and you need to talk to your wife about it. You will be kept informed about my exams and necessary details in the same manner you tell us about your performance ratings in office and your critical meetings with the boss.

I am hoping to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Your daughter

~

I stared at the letter for some more time. Was this really written to my husband by my daughter 16 years back? How did this letter get delivered now?

Next day morning, I called the post office and asked for the postman who delivered letters yesterday. When I told him about the letter, he said, “I found this letter while cleaning the old storage section. I saw the date and immediately understood that there might be some mystery. I enquired with our old post office managers and someone from them, happens to be your husband. Since there was no mention of the sender’s name, we decided to deliver the letter. Luckily, it was kept in a box, that’s why it looks all clean and new. Hope everything is ok, Madam?”

 This story was published in Readomania.

When I chased a bus in a bus!

Disclaimer: This definitely doesn't happen every day. It is once in a lifetime experience because you do not tend to end up in such weird situations every often. This experience of mine is a unique one and I hope I do not end up in such a situation anymore.

In Bangalore, you have the provision of buying monthly passes for accessing public buses. I normally buy the one that allows me to travel in the Volvo buses and it costs Rs. 2250 (if you already own an identity card) and Rs. 2300 (if you do not). On the very first day of December, 2014 I was ready to buy the monthly pass and boarded a Volvo bus from the nearby bus stop. I informed the bus conductor to give me one that costs Rs. 2250 and to hurry up since I will be getting down in the next stop itself. He informed that he doesn't have that one but instead will give me the one that costs Rs. 2300. I agreed. By the time, he handed me the pass I got down without taking the change of Rs. 200. Neither did he remember nor did I notice.

It struck me just at the moment when I got down from the bus and checked for the change. The bus was gone and there was no way that I could have chased it by running with a heavy backpack. Just when I was wondering what to do, another Volvo came and I got into the bus. I explained to the conductor and the driver what had happened, with an all confused and helpless look. They asked if I noted the bus number (from the number plate) to which I replied, no. Then something exciting happened!

Both the driver and conductor ensured that I will be able to catch the bus and get my money back. Luckily there wasn't any other Volvo bus of the same route between both these buses and this bus could follow the earlier one. Since we were a little behind, we were getting stuck at every signal that the earlier one cleared. But this chasing one made sure that it zooms through the traffic and not stop unnecessarily at stoppages. The chase was turning into an exciting one where not only I but the driver and conductor were in equal anticipation. At each and every signal, while my prayers to God increased its pace, for the driver the wait to drive a little faster to catch up was visible clearly. Finally, at one signal both the bus got stuck. The driver was quick enough to let me get down and run and catch the earlier one. I ran through the cars and knocked on the bus door. Normally, the buses do not allow passengers to board buses in the middle of the road but this one did. I got into the bus, caught hold of the conductor and asked for the money. Initially, he denied but then when I told him I had got down without taking the change and mentioned the bus stop, he remembered and thankfully, gave me the change without much problems.

Now, I was in an area which was completely off track from the route to my office and I was left with a new bus pass and change that was destined to be spent on auto fare. But this chasing a bus in another bus will always remain a special one, for I know, these unique experiences visit you very rarely.

Did she just blame us for not smiling?

Do you remember your school days? I am sure all of you will be excited and nostalgic now about how fun those days were, your friends with whom you share a lifelong friendship now, etc. And school day memories are such that we keep going back to them whenever we face any similar situations that we might have faced in school. Recently, I had one really nostalgic moment. Trust me, the feeling was just the same.

We all have heard about loving thy neighbours. Neighbours are your next door people who become your immediate friends outside home gradually but in the same premises. You meet them, you greet them or simply know them. Today, as I speak to you, I choose to share a rare experience about one of my encounters with my neighbours here in Bangalore. I grew up amidst neighbours who were my relatives. So I could never relate to the type of neighbours who were shown in the television serials or the movies. But this desire of mine got fulfilled in a very interesting way when I moved to this new house in Bangalore.

My apartment has a lot of families who are either living their retired lives and have moved in to enjoy an old age life and are taken care by the children. And then, there are the flats occupied by working bachelors. You will often find these retired folks taking a walk in the long corridor together, discuss about the people living in the apartments, gossip at times about who they saw with whom, etc.

Now, we, my flatmates and I stay in a place, which is quite strategically located between the flat of the Secretary of the Society aka the apartment and the Vice-president. So, both of these families have the men in the leadership roles and the women to feed them information.

One evening, when one of my flatmates and I are at home, watching movies, our doorbell rang. I went and opened the door only to find my neighbour lady, an aged Bengali woman, walk in. No, not walk in, she barged in. Dressed in her night gown, hair tied into a bun and chewing paan, so yeah, bright red lips. While she chewed paan, she asked me to call my flatmate out. Both of us thought that it might be some apartment issue that she’s come to inform us, but her face said something else. She looked angry.

She asked my flatmate, I have something to ask you. Looking at her face, I had quietly went back to my room. She continued, today, while coming back from office, you saw me standing at the corridor with Mrs. G. You saw me, right? She nodded yes. There, you did something that you shouldn’t have done. A, my flatmate, stood stumped and confused and so did I, in my room of course. With confused expressions on our faces.

A asked, what exactly happened Aunty? Aunty replies, you did not smile at me. Like you do every time. That too, when I was there with Mrs. G. Do you know what she told me? Look those girls do not smile at you anymore. What happened? They smiled at me just today morning. Now you tell me, won’t you feel insulted if someone comes and tells you that your neighbour did not smile at you? I was called back in the room.

We stood still. Was she scolding us for not smiling at her? Really? We tried telling her, that there was a phone call that she was attending and she did not notice her. She accused me of the same thing. She refused to listen to us. She rejected our reasons. We had no intentions of insulting her by not smiling at her. She felt insulted and she made it clear. She barged out that same way she had come.  

Here, our neighbour came to us not to ask for sugar but to scold us for not smiling at her. The entire concept of having a neighbour turned upside down for me. We didn’t have any answer as to why it happened.

There she left and here we felt like school kids who had no answers as to why we did not do our homework. I remembered how teachers asked us why isn’t that we haven’t done our homework? We never had any answers because no answer can satisfy her brain and mind. I felt absolutely nostalgic.

She angrily walked out leaving us wondering, is this also a reason why your neighbour can knock on your door? Blame us for not smiling at her? Well she did. 

Can I take a few balloons after the party gets over?

Isn’t that what you would expect a child coming to a party to tell you if you are hosting it? The colourful balloons are what attract the children so much and they wait for the party to get over so that they can pick and choose the balloons according to their choice. But is this the same scenario when it comes to the monthly birthday celebrations in office? Well, for one, there are no children but what happens when you hear your colleague asking for balloons so that she can take them home to the HR?

At my workplace, as a HR policy, on the fourth Friday of every month, a monthly birthday celebration is organised where the employees who were born in that particular month celebrate their birthday together with all the others in the cafeteria by cutting a huge cake and eating some munchies. This month, a colleague of mine was celebrating her birthday and we all gathered in the cafeteria. It was decorated with balloons and festoons and the cake, the patties and the coke were waiting for us. All of us had only one thing in mind. A big piece of cake after the customary piece has been eaten. But this one colleague had something else in her mind. She wanted to take the balloons and was only waiting for the party to get over. Not showing much interested in the cake or in meeting everyone else in between work, she was looking for a chance to go and talk to the birthday organisers to help her the balloons.

After about 20 mins when people started moving out and getting back to work, she walked up to the HR team, asked for the balloons and came back to us all giggling with two bunches of balloons. Apparently, the HR team was also amused and they happily gave her the balloons to take home. She clicked photos with the balloons, posed along with others and finally got back to her seat.

The next thing that struck all of us was how was she planning to take these balloons home? Travelling back home in a bus was out of question but wouldn't the balloons burst while going in an auto as well. She was left with no other option but taking an auto back home. I accompanied her till the bus stop. Certain funny things happened on the way that made the whole incident more interesting. First, the neighbouring auto had women in it who kept touching the balloons while we were stuck in the traffic and it had pissed my colleague off quite badly. This was followed by the inquisitive auto-wallah (not blaming him though), as to why is she carrying so many balloons home? And whenever, a balloon or two would burst, he would turn and say, Kya Madam? The ultimate end to her dream of going back home with balloons ended with the street children catching her and running after her to give away the balloons to them. The kind hearted young lady she is, she gave them and returned home finally with only five out of, may be, 12 of them. 

We all knew that she has a fascination for balloons when she said, “We can put up balloons on her birthday and celebrate!” or “Oh wow! That team is celebrating his birthday and they have so many balloons on his desk. I will go and ask for some.” These only gave us the idea that on her birthday, we should gift her a packet of balloons if not anything else. That packet, I heard, is one of her most prized possessions and may be kept for her children to be inherited.

We feel amused to see her excitement when it comes to balloons and all she tells us, the balloons brings out the kid in her. It is always fascinating to have something of this sort in your life that never fails to bring a smile on your face, irrespective of how old you are and what profession you are in. A food for thought here? So, what’s that one thing that makes me a kid and bring a smile on my face? What about you?

When the maid went to jail!

My usual conversations with Ma includes our daily routines of who did what throughout the day, and some interesting things that may have happened on that particular, and most importantly, who’s cooked what. On this particular day, Ma sounded a little distressed because our maid had informed her whereabouts after bunking work for more than three days in a row.

Me: So, what happened to her? Why isn’t she coming?

Ma: She’s in jail!

Me: Whaaaat? What? Why? How? When? Which jail?

Ma: She hasn’t done anything. It’s her brother because of whom she’s in jail.

Me: What did the brother do now? Please explain.

Ma: Her brother had been going out with a girl for quite some time and eloped a few days back and they got married. Both have been missing since then. So, the father of the bride registered a police complaint against the entire family of the boy including his widowed mother, married sisters and brothers-in-law. So, now all of them have been arrested under non-bailable warrant. There’s no clue as to when they will be released from jail. Sigh!

Me: OMG! Really? Now?

Ma: Now what? I will have to find a new maid within a few days because I do not know when’s going to be back.

Me: Yes, better. Or you can look for a temporary maid because she won’t be spending her rest of the life in jail. She will want her work her back.

Ma: Yes, that’s there. Let’s see.

………….

Ma found a replacement maid who agreed to work in our maid’s absence.

………….

After about a month:

Ma: The maid is back to work from today. She came to meet me.

Me: Oh! She got released from jail? What happened to her? How did she get released?

Ma: Her brother came back home with his wife and they met the bride’s father also. After much persuasion apparently, he agreed to accept him as his son-in-law only if he accepts some of his conditions. He also took back the complaint.

Me: That’s good. So, how’s she doing? Is she fit to work? Was she harassed in the jail?

Ma: Harassed? Not at all. She’s glowing and looks as refreshed as she can. I was surprised to see her.

Me: What? How did that happen?

Ma: Apparently, inside the jail, there wasn’t much work to be done by them. They were only made to do some basic works and were given meals three times a day. The breakfast included coffee and snacks, etc. Now, she didn’t have to do strenuous work inside the jail. So, she’s all charged up and refreshed.

Me: Ma, are you sure she was actually arrested and not holidaying in the jail???

 

This is not entirely a piece of fiction for the conversation is based on the facts shared by the maid herself. Can’t guarantee if the entire episode was made up or not! ;)

  

But I didn’t run away!

One of the most basic ideas that every child gets when he or she gets scolded by the parents is to run away and lead an independent life. This thought can come at any stage of the childhood years. I had seen my cousin sister threatening her Mom that she’ll storm out of the house because she was scolded badly due to her mischievous attitude and using bad words that she had picked up from school. This girl was only four years at that time. Realising that she doesn’t have the permission to go down the stairs, she decided that coming to our house was the safest option and packed a few dresses, pants, a bottle of water, two sweets and two lemons that her grandma had got for them. She told her Mom, she doesn’t wish to stay with her anymore and walked out straight and reached our door. She knocked and when I opened the door, I could see her angry face and my aunt’s giggling face from the other side. She came and told my Mom, she’s now her daughter and demanded that she will eat, sleep and bathe in our house. She will only speak to her Dad because he’s the only person who understands her. How thoughtful!

But my case wasn’t the same. Technically, I had no intention of doing any such things but what happened out of a tiny miscommunication gave shape to the following incident.

It was raining and my school, like any other school, didn’t formally declare a holiday. Since I always used to go to school with my Dad and return in the school bus, we had not checked whether the school bus is available on that day. I was dropped at school and my Dad left for his office, which was about 100 mtrs from my school. Upon reaching the class that we, hardly five or six of us, were told that no classes will be held on that day and the teachers gave us free periods to enjoy. Being in my fourth standard that time, my school used to get over at 2:40 pm afternoon. When school got over, I was told that there is no school bus available and I will have to call my parents to take me home. Didi was appearing for her graduation exams at that time and Ma was busy with her. So the option of calling home was stroked out, despite knowing the fact that there are others in the family who can come and pick me up. Well, the next suggestion I gave to the school authorities was that they can drop me at my Dad’s office and I can go back with him. I am the last in my family to have studied in this school after my aunt and my sister. They knew me and Dad quite well. They agreed. I was dropped at Dad’s office, went to his cabin, sat on his chair and happily slept off. My Dad wasn’t in office at that time, obviously. He came back after about a couple of hours and was taken aback to see me sleeping. He asked me about the whole incident and immediately realised what must be going on back home. Ma and Didi would have returned home from the exams and found out that I haven’t reached home yet. My uncles and aunts would’ve panicked by now and started looking out for me. Dad picked up the phone to call and found the line busy. In an era with no mobile phones and only a landline connection, you are limited in your actions. He was finding ways to communicate to them about my whereabouts while they might be trying Dad’s office number to ask or inform about me. Therefore it was a total chaos without me understanding what’s going on!

We finally decided to go home as early as possible and started walking towards the parking area. The second shock and to my amusement, I witnessed my Dad getting scolded for the first time ever! My uncle was trying to find a parking space with my sister. They both got out of the car and greeted us with angry faces. Didi kept asking, rather scolding me about whatever happened while Dad got scolded for not informing back home. Quite a weird and funny situation with both elder siblings scolding their little ones. 

Well, we reached home and Mom was relieved to see me alive and not kidnapped or that I did not run away anywhere. I was then scolded and told for the umpteenth time that a family at home means everyone and not only your parents and sister. I should have called home and informed someone. That was a lesson that I learnt and remember till date. But now, if you think about it, everyone in the family thought I would have run away because someone must have scolded me. But I didn’t.

PS: For quite some time afterwards, I was being watched closely by everybody and my cousins faced the same situation too. However, the regular dose of scolding didn’t go down!

When I woke up choked from my sleep!

The nephew, in his first couple of years, had built the habit of taking his afternoon nap with me. Well, I understand the fun and the need to sleep in the afternoon, which I ignored (unfortunately) in my childhood days. And so does my sister. That's why, she insisted that my nephew should sleep in the afternoon so that he doesn't regret not doing so in his later years.

So, both of us are blissfully sleeping after hours of story book reading and coaxing the little devil to sleep. Now, babies crawl and climb on you unintentionally. No offense there. But, he found a better way. In his sleep, on this day, he didn't climb on me. Instead, he rested his little head with spiked hair on my throat comfortably. Interestingly, the head and my throat fit beautifully.

Photo Credit: www.dreamstime.com

I was having some weird afternoon dream where I was about to enjoy my ice cream but suddenly I find someone strangling me to prevent me from having my ice cream! I panicked and screamed in my dream and wake up scared. Oh! Thank God, it was only a dream and why do I still feel choked and why is that something scruffy? And to top it all, I am not able to move myself. Then it finally dawned upon me, the little sleeping baby had found himself a comfortable fitting pillow! :)