When was the last time...

you wandered through muddy paths, have your feet soaked in running water from borewell and watched the perfect sunset on background of the shiny, golden wheat fields with constant chirping of peacocks in background completing the perfect scenic picture. In short, when was the last time you visited an authentic village. I had a trip to village last weekend. When others were celebrating Good Friday, I was on my trip down to memory lanes. No matter how many time I go to my village it never stops giving me surpises and I cannot stop myself relating to the childhood days spent here.


I went to meet my MausiJee(mother’s sister) who stays around 80-85 kms from my abode. Very much excited we started in the early morning so that we can reach there in time to catch the morning meal. And the slow & sensible driver like me accomplished this daunting task with ease in an hour. Now there is a pukka concrete road which means no more clouds of dust when you drive and no more small children running after your car. We reached around 8AM and unlike our colonies the streets were full of life even at this ungodly hour.


After the staple diet of freshly skimmed buttermilk and aaloo paranthas, my nephews & nieces (6 in exact number) from 2 cousin brothers get hold of me and we started playing poshampa-poshampa (those from other state/country/planet, this is a game in which 2 person hold hands and others need to form a line and pass through them avoiding to get caught). After 2-3 rounds I was exhausted and just when I was trying to escape without anyone notice and I heard “Chachu, once more”. Problem with kids is that somehow all these small shaktimaans never get tired and their just-once-more stops only when other person chokes and cries foul “heart attack, heart attack”


I was ready to hit the fields fresh from my sleep. On my way, children were playing cricket, I remember my days when we cousins used to play cricket and tried hard to make Sachin out of Kaifs from local kids so that our team got complete. There is no such need today; everyone was Sachin in his own. I decided to watch the game for a little more time and to my surprise they were discussing how boring are the Super Eights now with Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka already certain for semi-finals. Of course Bangladesh had something else on their mind; they beat South Africa that night.


Watching the scenic sunset over golden wheat fields just 15 days away from harvest was something out of the world experience. Neither words nor the photograph* on left can describe this in its true splendor. I went out again to prowl on the streets, after the high-in-saturated-fats dinner and routine story telling to kids, while other members were busy catching the not-to-be-missed-suspense in saas-bahu opera. The streets were empty and you could see few people holding radio sets in their hand listening to FM, some other older ones listening to news. Jee haan, Bhaiyon aur (bhaiyon ki) Baheno, I still remember the excitement we used to have for the Colgate Cibaca Geet Mala hosted by veteran anchor AMEEN SAYANI and the full circle of kids-young-n-old around the radio set.


Of course not every thing is perfect, the battle with the mosquitoes still have its marks on my forehead even when I was declared victorious unanimously. But the peaceful and serene days spent there will have their euphoria for some more time to come, at least till my rafting trip to Rishikesh at the end of this month. Till the time I return safely from the rafting pray for me !!

photograph* - The pics are taken from my mobile camera under low light condition. What a great combo to take great pics, Isn't it??