Wishes on a rainy day


It is 9 PM. There is an important exam scheduled for tomorrow and I'm busy preparing for it against the hurdles which are coming up just to hinder my studies. My friends come over or my favourite movie is playing on TV or the power has gone off. Mysteriously I raise against all of them and study in the candle light trying to finish the syllabus . While studying I fall asleep when there is atleast 1/3 portion yet to be covered and wake up the next morning only an hour before the start of the exam. And I suddenly realise that I'm not in the town where I have to take the exam.I'm at my grand father's place which is a village 7 miles from the town where my school is situated. I have to rush and reach the venue if I have to pass the exam. I somehow manage to get the hall ticket, pencil and pen box and leave the house. There is no one to drop me and hence I walk around a mile, up to the main road to board a bus. With just fifteen minutes remaining I'm just hoping and being positive as I have studied atleast 2/3 of the syllabus. I board the crowded bus and then conductor asks for ticket. Panic button is rammed again. I do not have any money. I plead the bus conductor giving excuse of exam and also write down my house address as gaurantee while promising to repay him next day. So I manage to reach the venue 10 minutes late and school corridors are empty and the entire school is dauntingly silent. I see all my classmates busy scribbling lenghty essays on the white sheet of paper. I explain my teacher the reason for the delay and look for my place to sit and settle down with a sigh of relief. The moment of relief is only for a short while as I'm SHOCKED to see the question paper. It is a different subject and not the one that I had studied last night. I gape at the paper in disbelief while tears roll down my eyes! and I wake up! The most horrifying and the worst recurring dream I ever get is over, for today. It lingers in the head throughout the day and is kind of disturbing.
There are some memories which are very dear to me especially the childhood days where we 5 cousins would meet at our maternal grand father's place on the 2 months long summer holidays. It is a small village called Golgod. Grand pa's house is a huge tiled roof house with a big verandah in the front , end of that were steps leading to the garden which my grandpa had grown. Jasmine, hibiscus, red pink white roses ,Coconut trees and at the end of the garden was a small neat stream. In summers it would get water upto two feets which was very fine with us to do fishing,water walks and also bathe occasionally. when it rains heavily the water rises upto the banks and we stay indoors and watch the twigs, old shoes, tree branches and clothes drifting in the muddy water. On the banks of this stream is a big granite stone where the laundry is done by the maids and next to that is a sickle sharpner stone installed. I always looked out for that stone before stepping into the stream as below this stone there was something that looked like a snake.Sometimes there were snakes and sometimes reflection of coconut palms on rippled water. whatsoever it was I never went alone in the streams because of this. To cross over this stream, one feet wide tree trunk is placed across. without practice you need to do a bit of circus to get across. On the other side of the banks is a huge paddy field where rice is grown and that borders the bettlenut plantation. Entire day in those holidays we were outdoors on our interesting expeditions, looking out for cashew farms, making camp house of fallen palms, climbing trees and chewing mangoes. We also did farm chores and earned precious titbits for that. We did broom the verandah, picked fallen beetlenuts, cut grass for the cattle, removed weeds from the beetlenut plantation, picked fallen palm branches and dragged them to the shed, reared the cattle and drove them home safely, built fences , plucked raw mangoes for the elder ladies to make pickle, stole the sweet ripe mangoes and kept for ourselves, dug small false holes for dogs to get stuck and fall.
we also did stuff that angered the bunch of grumpy ladies. like bathing in the stream, stealing milk powder and chocolate drink powders from their pantry, which were very costly then. We stole dry fruits and munchies and brought it back to the camp house or the tree house and had it leisurely while playing cards. at times we even traded those stolen items in the game. We mocked the cows when they were milking them. Touched the pickled mangoes with our hands. made noise and jumped in the attic post lunch when they took naps.

I guess this is etched in my memory and that too in the easily accessed part of RAM,hence most of the time I get dreams related to this place. Like I meet an old college friend in Golgod while the college I studied was 500 miles away from this village. Or the exam venue is in Golgod and I'm in a far off place the night before it. Or I happen to bump into my ex boyfriend when I'm on one of those village expeditions with my cousins. My husband is making a house of palm trees in the fields.

Everything revolves around Golgod.

Fantastic feeling to have been there in my life,
the serene green fields brings a sense of relief,
a tinge of sadness for I see it seldom,
Nostalgia creeps in while skimming the photo album.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It was a joy reading this shilpvey...keep going girl..Love you:)

Shilpa said...

Thanks Chutki..:)

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