सेमल
“it reminds me of those days when
in bihar. this time around the cotton would sprout off a tree in my colony
which I tell you, would have easily put a skyscraper to shame. Aur toh aur around
this time the wind takes a eastern turn, poorvaiyya kehte hain, and the cotton
would swirl around in sinuous grace..uff, mai bhi yadon mei beh nikala :)
Basant has always meant a lot to
me. Be it with the romanticized version of it, rather versions of it which I was
acquainted with along the days of my childhood. There is certainly this whole
new feeling of liveliness which is put into action by this season. It all
starts with Makar Sankranti and the shift the solar phase into the northern skies.
Normally is din toh naashte mei dahi chiwra hota tha, the curd would specially
be prepared the previous night, and because the nights were still hungover in
winter, we used to cover the curd with blankets to get them to settle. And
Voila! It worked fab. Then afternoon mei aawale ke ped ke neeche. Nahi Nahi! Imli
ke ped ke neeche aawle ki khichdi! Haha, ye zyaada kar nahi paate the, par ma
ke school mei ek ped tha zaroor hamari dawaat ka mehmaan. Hasi aati hai ab
is bachapane pe. Tum bore toh nahi ho rahi?
Makar Sankrant jaata toh basant
ki panchmni aati. Bihar would now ostentatiously put itself to the ritz for the
saraswati pooja. Hum log bhi pandal daalte, every year with new new themes and
the nasty neighbors would try to copy ours because evidently it was best in the
neighborhood…. J
Hamare sheher mei ek kavi rehte the, his birthday would be celebrated on this
day as Amrit Mahotsav or the Puritiy Festival. He was quite weird, although in
a nice way. He would sleep, literally sleep with stray street dogs, would have
no lock on the doors of his house so as to facilitate easy locomotion for these
free creatures, including humans. He would have atleast a hundred livestock at
his residence at any given time of the day. So raat ko basant pachmi ke din Ma,
mai aur didi log pahuchte the is ‘brahman’ sabha mei perform karne ko. All together
this day would remain very very busy…
Aise kya dekh rahi ho? Ro nahi
rha hoon, yaadon ke jharokhe se bheeg raha hoon instead….
pata hai, ek budhe chacha rehte
the , udhar hi kone pe. Though the walls of his house was painted in peacock
blue and sparkled with the growing sunshine, he always seemed a bit desolated,
thode nakhush. Semal se unke bachpan ki ek doosari inning shuru ho jati thi. He
would start collecting the cotton, and dekhte dekhte he’d start spinning the
yarn on his gandhian charkha. This was usually the time when we as kids would
drop at his place and play around for sometime. Chachi khaja(sweetmeat)
bahut accha banati thi. I still remember the taste although it’s been so so
long. Its funny actually I remember quite a lot about him. It seems as a child
also I knew that I would be narrating this to you. Accha toh who chacha rui
bunte rehte. Aur mai ghoorta rehta. Shaam hote, dhibiya(open lantern) nikal
deti chachi. I would anticipate him to start talking as we did everyday but he
would not. Anxious and desperate I would start asking him random questions
about his life. From what I remember he was a Batoh some time in his life. Now
a Batoh or a batohia is person similar to a postman but yet different. He would
go around the villages singing and talking to the women in the hinterlands
about their grievances and proposing solutions for it. After my uninterrupted
inquisitive inquiries he would start to tell me about his life and the history
of my town. Warm and wonderful ! Ab tak daal bhaat mei chauka lagne lagta tha
unke ghar mei. Chachi kehti ruk jo, khaleiha, tohar mai ke bhi kabhi bulaava.
But I would need to leave, otherwise mom would create a ruckus at home. And
I did leave. Retired for the day!
So yes, ye ped bahut emotional
kar deta hai mereko. Accha hai tumne ye foto khichi hai iski. Par who jo ped
mere dimaag pe khicha hai uska koi jod kahan?”
- Deepshika ke liye
photo credit : Mere agarj Akhilesh Bakshi.
