I had been out this weekend to a nearby place called Karjat. It was somehow planned with office colleagues to just get some time out and maybe enjoy. So we had booked this small time resort there complete with a swimming pool and slides. That place..leave the resort...i cant call it a town. It was a village..a small village where shops close at 8:00 in the evening, there is no electricity(at least not when i reached there). There were these kerosene wicks and a very few people. The railway station itself was in such a desolate & dark state that it reminded me of some other places i had been to in my life till now.
My dad is in transferrable job, and so typically every 3 years he is into a new place which 80 percent of the times is something which would seem prehistoric to people in the cities. So, it was our yearly ritual to go and spend summer holidays in the place where my dad would be currently posted (we stayed away from dad most of the time, just because the places he lived werent that good to stay..mainly becasue our parents cared so much about our schooling part). I think, had they not cared so much about us, i would be another of those spoiled and wasted brats trying to find a way back!! I am talking about these places so when i was in 7th grade, my dad was transferred to this place called Maneri, which is near to a place called Utarkashi. It is in uttaranchal...upper himalayas. Its very much near to Gangotri, the place where river Ganga originates.
So, like every summer we went to this new place with my mom. It was a perfect place likes ones u c in a canvass...hills all over..a river..village...it was just beautiful and I would like to recreate it :) It was on the banks of river Ganges. At these hills, the rivers are like anything! There are rocks moving alongwith with water, of the size that would otherwise seem unimaginable to move. There was another village which looked all fresh on the opposite side of the river, and i was told that the year before it actually was all washed away by floods and was relocated. There were very dim lights there..of course kerosene lamps. There was a school there too, but no roads, there was a hanging bridge that connected ends across the river. If anyone walks on this bridge it would start oscilatting like this pendulum, and i always feared walking on that. Once i went almost halfway, but then came back and sat in the middle crying. I was almost dizzy( but this thing happened 15 years back..!) It really is an example of bad engineering i guess, because it shook so much that i thought that if someone ran on it, i am sure it would turn upside down!! It was a free roller coaster ride of sorts! There was only one shop in Maneri, or two..i dont remember clearly, and it sold everything. Every evening, my brother was all excited, because in the evening there was a bakery guy who came on his cycle. He rode all the way in this hilly terrain from a bakery 14 kms away. He sold some heart shaped cakes which my younger brother manish loved. Oh, he shared it with me a few time and i can recall its taste, it was good. Where we lived, above that was papa's office( it was all site work, so its just an office for namesake ), and it was all fenced. I was told that in the night there were tigers that came from the jungle. Once in the night, about 10 people inclding me were sitting after dinner with a kerosene lamp in between, and there was this cook, who had been there for very long at this same place. That day he told us the stories, of how many times he saw a tiger. Hardly anyone went to the office room, atleast i avoided. even if i did, i made sure to keep an eye for a tiger. In my mind i had already imagined how i would kill a tiger if i faced it!! Obviously..no tiger dared...some dogs did but.There were also a decnt sized vegetable garden that my dad made sure were maintained, and he put a person specially for taking care of this small farm. I remember what grew there...potato, sugarcane, spinach, cauliflower...lots of things. This thing also saved lots of shopping from a market far away. So this summer this day my dad told some people to get the potatoes, as they were ready. I was very excited and we three brothers joined in to get the potatoes. That was the day i realized that potatoes grew inside the soil. Otherwise i always thought that they grew like tomatoes or brinjals or peas hanginng. We enjoyed that day to take these plants out and get the potatoes.
One other day ..everyone was sleeping and i wanted to have this sugarcane thing so i went out with my brother, with a kitchen knife. spent 2 hours, trying to get that thing off...but it didnt. I had to leave it half cut there....then i remember i got a beating for getting out in the sun. Me and my brother had all gone dirty and sweaty! Since there were no electricity there,we were told that we have to study in the day and complete holiday homework, evening was for cricket...with some people from this camp( driver and the helper). This cricket place was close to the river and we very very very strictly told not to touch water. And actually we were sent alongwith the bhaiya to look out for us. Once my brother went near to the water.....even i was so angry over him that i slapped him. He gave me a punch..that the fight continued till the bhaiya came in between. Later i complained to mom that he had gone near water ..and he got a good beating! now call me anything for that....but anyways scores were settled it was all settled because even i got a beating and my third brother too. This thing was typical about my mom....if one got a beating..each one of us three got atleast something. And so for the next few days atleast we were like the best kids around. Well but apart from the shared beating we got, my two brothers also murdered the two fishes in the small plastic bottle where i had kept them. This time i cried for real..and only these two got the beating..i dint. But my fishes were dead...:( . My father got me enrolled for a computer course, because he did not want that i should waste my time.moreover, i had a computer clases in school and he thought it would help. So i was enrolled for this, and i had to travel 14 kms everyday...n i was about 15 or smaller...everyday i reached this place..bought a Cadburys Gems...ate it...reached late for the classes....evening back..i took an icecream..and back home. I dont remeber if i learnt anything at all ther..but i still have the certificate that reads "Certified that Mr. Ashok Kumar Joshi (later in 10th grade i removed this kumar from my name as i thought i sounded uncool!)completed course in language BASIC ,from balahblah institute and his perfomance is V.GOOD" well...!!
One other day, there was a person who came with a bear(a real bear)! I remeber that peron had a suitcase with him. He showed a teeth and said it was a tigers teeth. Then there were tigers hair..beerrs teeth, hair...and he was selling them as some kind of medicine. He also had a drum and made the bear dance and shake hands with the few ppl around. My dad handed me a 10 ruppee note to give to the bear but damn!! How cud i touch the bear...i was so very afraid of it.
While our summer holidays were almost over, we were about to leave and dabbu went missing(one of the dogs). These two had become very friendly with us, and also accompanied us for cricket. We thought he would be back, but he never did. Later on the cook told that the tiger had eaten dabbu. Poor dabbu!
All in all, it was a fabulous summer...and this thing happened to me more than 12 years back. I had lot of beautiful summers like this one. And i remember each and everything..as this is a
thing of yesterday. Only yesterday we were kids..not ready to think about anything! Things change....dont they?
:)
I heard that that village now has electricity....with loadshedding... well maintained school and other things.
