when I was in first year of Kindergarten ...it was this school called Balniketan...run by the 9th BRD ie base repair depot ...the place my dad worked .....it was a simple school and I did not take to it ...if I went to school I would get out of class and go sit with a Bhagya Aunty ...my dad's friend's wife who taught in that school .... she was very fond of me and would let me sit on the table in her class ..... the trip to and from school was the worst part ....there was a mallu boy a year or so older than me ...who helped me in the transport ....during break time I would go speak to him in Malayalam ....
a few months into schooling and I started Howling to use the truck to go to school ...it was a truck made by some company and was called Shaktimaan ...I hated the sight of the creepy olive green bus in the morning ...kids would stamp and kick each other on the way to school ....after a point my parents got fed up of my howling as my mom had to carry my younger brother and drop me to the bus stop ....I think it became a headache for her too and I got to stay at home and be taught by my dad ...for the entrance test to senior KG in my elder sister's school run by the Jesus and Mary Congregation ....life was Blissfull for some time.... I was just 4 and a half
during that time when I was home ...my dad's elder sister's husband who was a Signal Inspector with the railways came home for a visit as he had come for some work to Pune ...he was posted in Igatpuri a hill station in Maharashtra ...
he just asked politely and jokingly if I would want to go visit their house in the hills ...and I was thrilled to have an adventure away from studying at home ....I said I would love to go ...he said in that case you will have to wake up at 5.30 am tomorrow and I was all OK with anything and everything ....my dad was cool about it however my mom didn't want me to go ....next day a wee little bag was packed for me and off I went ....
it was my first journey on the Mumbai Pune train line ....and then we took a diversion somewhere midway ....I still remember travelling in the guards compartment of the goods train to Igatpuri ...
their house was a very cute colonial bungalow ...with wrought a iron staircase joining the upper storey and down ...there was a Sikh family staying upstairs ...I had a gala time playing with my cousin sister and brother and their neighbours ...Bubbly and Pinky...names I found quite quaint ....
my brother was some 12 years older than me and sister is 4years older than me ...my cousin would make his sister cry every morning when going to school ...and I would wonder why he would tease her sooo ...my aunt would use khol on my sister's eyebrows and eyes every morning and she would cry ....immediately my aunt would turn to me and ask ....your mom also does this every morning right ....and I would nod in affirmation....I don't think my sister liked me doing that ...
they had a very unique system in the bathroom ....there was a cemented area for filling water and one could bathe a small kid there or as my aunt did ...she stored water there for an emergency ...in case there was some shortage ....somehow that tank used to fascinate and scare my cousin sister and me ...
that is the first time I had krvande and jamuns ....big juicy purple coloured Delicious jamuns ...they had an enormous tree in the garden ....and we cousins gorged on it ....plus raw mangoes with salt and cayenne pepper ....that is also the place I saw crabs for the first time ....my uncle got crabs one day and he emptied the live crabs in the water tank in the bathroom and I was hooked to watching them ...that sister of my dad's did not stay in her parent's house when she was growing up ....her paternal uncle who worked as a Station Master and was an expert in the Queen's language took her to his house as my aunt was very good at school and he wanted her to excel ...ergo my aunt was a trained teacher when she got married ...the fallout was ...she always felt a little estranged from her sisters and brothers except my dad of course ...who is a paragon of virtue and is kind to everyone ...even his dad's second wife ...most of my uncles and aunts ignored my second paternal grandmother ....
another problem due to my aunt concentrating on her studies is that she did not know much of cooking when she got married ...however my uncle since he was a bachelor for quite some time was a good cook ...he helped his wife ...in their house my uncle Only cleaned the fish and non veg ...ergo he showed my cousins and me ...the entire process of cleaning crabs and my aunt cooked it ....it tasted delicious and I was hooked to crustaceans Ever since ....
a few days later I had a nose bleed ...I was soooo used to my nose bleed as it was common for me during extreme cold and extreme heat ....however my aunt and everyone at her home and her neighbours got sooo very flustered with the nose bleed ....I was amused at the running around and fawning over me ....I let it go on for a bit and then got worried for my aunt and told her ...I know how this stops ...I just need to put my head raised and lean backward and need a bit of ice on my forehead ....soon it stopped and everyone thought I was a smart kid ...LOL I was just used to my problem ...
the next weekend my uncle decided to take all of us and their friends and neighbours and go to a dam near their place for a picnic ...specially since they wanted to show me around ....so off we went ....when playing in the lake near the dam ...I slipped and fell in and started floating away ....luckily one of the kids saw me and started screaming ...and my uncle lunged and caught hold of my hair and held on and slowly pulled me out of the water ....that was the second big scare I gave them ....
by this time a month had passed and my dad wrote to ask about how I was doing .... I never missed anyone ...however when my uncle asked me if I wanted to go home ...I said I was ok ....their house had more kids for me to play with ....after a second letter from Pune ...my uncle took me along with him on his next official trip to Pune ....they got transferred to Mumbai soon after ....and I have never visited Igatpuri ever since ....once when coming from Assam we took the Mumbai bound train and I passed by Igatpuri ...a place where I had nearly drowned as a wee little kid ...
going to Mumbai was lots of fun during my growing up years and they too would come home often ...life was so very simple and fun those days ....during school I used to fight with my cousin brother from Mumbai as he would call me haddi meaning bones ....as I was very scrawny ...once I told him stop or else I will crush your specs ....he called me haddi and I went up to him and took his specs and stamped it and Broke it ....all hell broke loose as he had a high number and could not go back without his specs ....my dad lost his cool with me and I was grounded and got AN EAR FULL ....iohhhh that was 4 much ....
he joined the railwyas just like his dad ..and in the same dept ...he was our official lawyer ...if we needed something my parents were against ...I would go to the railways signals office and call him ....many times he would give us siblings pocket money as he was working when we were in school and college ... his sister and I would share our secrets and she taught me how to bleach my face .... she and I would binge watch movies when I went over ...and I would take her around Pune when she came over ....
nothing in those innocent and fun years prepared us for the tragedy ahead ... my cousin brother's 3 year old daughter got meningitis and lost her motor and speech skills ...he turned to Christianity and became a pastor in no time ...a very generous, charismatic and fun loving soul he was ...he lost his daughter in 2016 and he did the ground work to start a girls orphanage in Mumbai ...when he was murdered for converting a family following Islam .... the person just wanted to scare him but his near blow became a weird actual blow and my cousin passed away by accident ....
my cousin sister and I would talk a huge amount those days and I went and was there for her on the day of the funeral ...he was buried and now is survived by his wife and little son ....a carbon copy of him .... both my uncle and aunt passed away sooner than expected and now there is just my sister with whom I communicate on and off ....
life is so very unpredictable and not once does it give us any forewarning about the road ahead .... I so regret not going to meet him before he passed ...after he turned a born again Christian ...most of the family had cut him out ...and I felt sad about it .....however I am glad that thanks to the 1st MLM I joined ...I used to call him quite a bit in 2014 and we had started talking to each other and writing to each other on FB on my second account .... once he passed some of cousins started stoopid dialogues on FB about that cousin who had helped everyone ....ergo I deactivated that FB account which was for family and friends ...and it is deactivated to this day .....
a few months into schooling and I started Howling to use the truck to go to school ...it was a truck made by some company and was called Shaktimaan ...I hated the sight of the creepy olive green bus in the morning ...kids would stamp and kick each other on the way to school ....after a point my parents got fed up of my howling as my mom had to carry my younger brother and drop me to the bus stop ....I think it became a headache for her too and I got to stay at home and be taught by my dad ...for the entrance test to senior KG in my elder sister's school run by the Jesus and Mary Congregation ....life was Blissfull for some time.... I was just 4 and a half
during that time when I was home ...my dad's elder sister's husband who was a Signal Inspector with the railways came home for a visit as he had come for some work to Pune ...he was posted in Igatpuri a hill station in Maharashtra ...
he just asked politely and jokingly if I would want to go visit their house in the hills ...and I was thrilled to have an adventure away from studying at home ....I said I would love to go ...he said in that case you will have to wake up at 5.30 am tomorrow and I was all OK with anything and everything ....my dad was cool about it however my mom didn't want me to go ....next day a wee little bag was packed for me and off I went ....
it was my first journey on the Mumbai Pune train line ....and then we took a diversion somewhere midway ....I still remember travelling in the guards compartment of the goods train to Igatpuri ...
their house was a very cute colonial bungalow ...with wrought a iron staircase joining the upper storey and down ...there was a Sikh family staying upstairs ...I had a gala time playing with my cousin sister and brother and their neighbours ...Bubbly and Pinky...names I found quite quaint ....
my brother was some 12 years older than me and sister is 4years older than me ...my cousin would make his sister cry every morning when going to school ...and I would wonder why he would tease her sooo ...my aunt would use khol on my sister's eyebrows and eyes every morning and she would cry ....immediately my aunt would turn to me and ask ....your mom also does this every morning right ....and I would nod in affirmation....I don't think my sister liked me doing that ...
they had a very unique system in the bathroom ....there was a cemented area for filling water and one could bathe a small kid there or as my aunt did ...she stored water there for an emergency ...in case there was some shortage ....somehow that tank used to fascinate and scare my cousin sister and me ...
that is the first time I had krvande and jamuns ....big juicy purple coloured Delicious jamuns ...they had an enormous tree in the garden ....and we cousins gorged on it ....plus raw mangoes with salt and cayenne pepper ....that is also the place I saw crabs for the first time ....my uncle got crabs one day and he emptied the live crabs in the water tank in the bathroom and I was hooked to watching them ...that sister of my dad's did not stay in her parent's house when she was growing up ....her paternal uncle who worked as a Station Master and was an expert in the Queen's language took her to his house as my aunt was very good at school and he wanted her to excel ...ergo my aunt was a trained teacher when she got married ...the fallout was ...she always felt a little estranged from her sisters and brothers except my dad of course ...who is a paragon of virtue and is kind to everyone ...even his dad's second wife ...most of my uncles and aunts ignored my second paternal grandmother ....
another problem due to my aunt concentrating on her studies is that she did not know much of cooking when she got married ...however my uncle since he was a bachelor for quite some time was a good cook ...he helped his wife ...in their house my uncle Only cleaned the fish and non veg ...ergo he showed my cousins and me ...the entire process of cleaning crabs and my aunt cooked it ....it tasted delicious and I was hooked to crustaceans Ever since ....
a few days later I had a nose bleed ...I was soooo used to my nose bleed as it was common for me during extreme cold and extreme heat ....however my aunt and everyone at her home and her neighbours got sooo very flustered with the nose bleed ....I was amused at the running around and fawning over me ....I let it go on for a bit and then got worried for my aunt and told her ...I know how this stops ...I just need to put my head raised and lean backward and need a bit of ice on my forehead ....soon it stopped and everyone thought I was a smart kid ...LOL I was just used to my problem ...
the next weekend my uncle decided to take all of us and their friends and neighbours and go to a dam near their place for a picnic ...specially since they wanted to show me around ....so off we went ....when playing in the lake near the dam ...I slipped and fell in and started floating away ....luckily one of the kids saw me and started screaming ...and my uncle lunged and caught hold of my hair and held on and slowly pulled me out of the water ....that was the second big scare I gave them ....
by this time a month had passed and my dad wrote to ask about how I was doing .... I never missed anyone ...however when my uncle asked me if I wanted to go home ...I said I was ok ....their house had more kids for me to play with ....after a second letter from Pune ...my uncle took me along with him on his next official trip to Pune ....they got transferred to Mumbai soon after ....and I have never visited Igatpuri ever since ....once when coming from Assam we took the Mumbai bound train and I passed by Igatpuri ...a place where I had nearly drowned as a wee little kid ...
going to Mumbai was lots of fun during my growing up years and they too would come home often ...life was so very simple and fun those days ....during school I used to fight with my cousin brother from Mumbai as he would call me haddi meaning bones ....as I was very scrawny ...once I told him stop or else I will crush your specs ....he called me haddi and I went up to him and took his specs and stamped it and Broke it ....all hell broke loose as he had a high number and could not go back without his specs ....my dad lost his cool with me and I was grounded and got AN EAR FULL ....iohhhh that was 4 much ....
he joined the railwyas just like his dad ..and in the same dept ...he was our official lawyer ...if we needed something my parents were against ...I would go to the railways signals office and call him ....many times he would give us siblings pocket money as he was working when we were in school and college ... his sister and I would share our secrets and she taught me how to bleach my face .... she and I would binge watch movies when I went over ...and I would take her around Pune when she came over ....
nothing in those innocent and fun years prepared us for the tragedy ahead ... my cousin brother's 3 year old daughter got meningitis and lost her motor and speech skills ...he turned to Christianity and became a pastor in no time ...a very generous, charismatic and fun loving soul he was ...he lost his daughter in 2016 and he did the ground work to start a girls orphanage in Mumbai ...when he was murdered for converting a family following Islam .... the person just wanted to scare him but his near blow became a weird actual blow and my cousin passed away by accident ....
my cousin sister and I would talk a huge amount those days and I went and was there for her on the day of the funeral ...he was buried and now is survived by his wife and little son ....a carbon copy of him .... both my uncle and aunt passed away sooner than expected and now there is just my sister with whom I communicate on and off ....
life is so very unpredictable and not once does it give us any forewarning about the road ahead .... I so regret not going to meet him before he passed ...after he turned a born again Christian ...most of the family had cut him out ...and I felt sad about it .....however I am glad that thanks to the 1st MLM I joined ...I used to call him quite a bit in 2014 and we had started talking to each other and writing to each other on FB on my second account .... once he passed some of cousins started stoopid dialogues on FB about that cousin who had helped everyone ....ergo I deactivated that FB account which was for family and friends ...and it is deactivated to this day .....
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