Friday, March 16, 2012

A Sunday in 1996- part 1


Raja…..Raaajaaa…mom shouted at the top of her voice trying to wake me up unsuccessfully. Fully able to hear the sound I was still not ready to leave bed. Dad talked to mom, ‘Let him sleep a bit more, its Sunday ’. ‘Let him sleep one day and ruin the good habit of waking early for school’, mom said. Dad just smiled from the corner of his glasses and edges of the newspaper which he opened completely to scan through each line and bit of news. He loved to savour the news line by line. Mom had already started cooking the special Sunday meal. I could hear sounds of the utensils from under the bed sheet which I had covered over myself.
                Finally not getting more sleep I decided to leave the bed finally. ‘This sleep is also a weird thing; it comes on school days but not on Sundays’, I thought to myself. After getting off the bed I went to the verandah and started yawning with all my might. I didn’t wash my face and slowly got into the sofa making sure that I do not draw mom’s attention. I slowly turned the TV on and sat comfortably on the sofa. Chitrahaar was showing one after another old movie songs. That was still one of the main source of entertainment on TV then. We did not have cable TV connection then and even if we had taken the connection, they did not have as many channels as today. Another song played which used to be mom’s favorite so I took the liberty to increase the volume. Mom slowly started to hum the tune to herself while working her way in the kitchen. I liked it when mom sang. The song got over and I knew what is to come. Mom shouted once again from kitchen, ‘Raja….go and brush your teeth and have your breakfast first’. ‘Hmm, just going to do that after this song’, I said. The song changed and I was still sitting there as I liked the next song better. They usually had a pattern of repeating songs and I knew my favorite song will come after 2 songs. Knowing that 2 more songs have already played since I told mom about going to brush, she shouted again with a bit more high tone, ‘Raja, if you don’t get up from there I will personally come there and make you brush your teeth’. I knew, this was the threshold and I slowly started towards the bathroom and took the Colgate toothpaste and squeezed a big quantity on the classic toothbrush. I dipped it in water and put it in my mouth. Started working on my teeth for about 1 min and spat all the foam in a jiffy and ran back to the kitchen, took the plate of steaming hot Upma with light stew gravy on top of it and ran back to the sofa to watch the TV.
                I made sure that I finished the breakfast was slow enough to be able to watch Chitrahaar till its last song. Then came the boring program, ‘The Doordarshan News’. I slowly took out an action comic book ‘chacha chowdhry and sabu’ from my school bag and started going through it. Mom suspicious about me doing exactly the same came from the kitchen and held one of my ears and told ‘why not complete the homework and fool around with this comic book?’ I said, ‘please maa when do I have time to read it?’ almost pleading for it. She said, ‘OK, only 10 mins. Then you immediately start with your home work’. I knew how to extend the 10 mins. Finally when mom discovered what I am up to, mom came straight up to me and took away the comic book. I had no options but to sulk and start working on my home work. I hated doing home work then. I didn't like the teachers who wanted Home work to be completed by Monday. Somehow, with grueling dis-interest I somehow managed to complete the home work. Then was the time for bathing. That also was not a favorite item on my list on a Sunday. I wanted to bath late and if possible then skip it all together. 
              Another shouting from my mom and I was in the bath room. I didn’t want to touch the water itself as it was cold. But had to come out soon or else mom will send dad to check if water sound is coming from bathroom or not to ensure that I am bathing. I managed to complete my bathing in 1 hour after 1 more reminder from my mom. I went to the shelf where we used to keep all out gods (idols of gods) and mumbled a prayer and then changed over to dry clothes and was sent out by dad to get some minor groceries from the kirana shop around the corner of our street. This would help mom to make the food (Sunday special) tastier.
On the way I met Sumit. He was on his new moped gifted by his uncle who stays in the America. They had sent this to him as Dussehra gift. I hated the way he showed it off to me. I only had my Hero bicycle. Still curious of how it runs I asked ‘Sumit, will you let me ride your moped for 2 mins?’ He agreed and I rode his moped for a very small instance of time. When it was roughly about 50 meters he said ‘That’s it that’s it, stop! Petrol costs 28 rupees you know’. I had no answers to that and got off his moped. With a sad face I bid him bye and walked to the kirana shop. I bought some garam masala, some other masalas and a detergent powder packet. I left the shop and while on the way, I was checking out the label on the detergent packet. It said a matchbox free with that pack. I ran back to the shop and asked about it. He said ‘I must have forgotten’. I was happy inside to have not been duped by the lala at the kirana shop.
To be continued….

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