Hullo, here I am with the next episode of chapter 2
Paramount High School is cosmopolitan. There are many Punjabis, Sindhis, Christians, Maharashtrians, Malayalis and Goans. One day the class is taken upstairs to a hall in the new building. A horror movie in black and white is shown. Ghosts in white, lifting chairs and shrieks of fear are heard. Rani cannot understand most of it.
Rani is not good at studies. She commits some mistakes in her arithmetic paper. The phobia of failure haunts her when her mother tells her she will fail in the subject. Her stomach rumbles and fear creeps into her spine. She remembers the superior force for the first time in her life. She prays to the Goddess of knowledge earnestly. She is happy to get her results which shows that she has passed. She is promoted to the next standard and dad covers her new books with brown paper.
Once Rani cries loud enough to pierce her dad’s ears. He gets up from his sleep which he is having after his night duty. His eyes are red and his beard black in colour. Rani catches her mother’s saree and looks at her father timidly. Dad looks at her with anger. She takes fright and stops speaking. She stammers and withdraws into herself to become an introvert. Although dad is loving, she feels herself close to her mother. She develops a phobia for water and is frightened when water is poured on her head.
Mom and dad devote their time to giving oil massage to their kids once a week. Toilets are at the farther end of the chawls. Mother manages all the household work. Rani has friends like Alifiya, Gahanna, Ashish, Lokesh and Jyoti who go to Paramount High school. Ammi, a middle aged woman makes them walk from Vanavli to Pehrauli. They pass the grain godown and near it there are vans, trucks and jeeps. After crossing the railway bridge or the kelami bridge, there is a fish market before entering the school. Children are in first standard. They are made to sit in a shed roofed by asbestos. Children experience the sweltering heat in summer and the battering sound of the rain in the rainy season. Roofs leak at certain places. The school is new and a new building is under construction.
Rani cannot understand the English language. Her mother teaches her English at home. Mother knows English because she educated herself in St. Mary’s School. Caste and Religion does not make any difference to Rani’s dad. Arundhati has respect for Rani’s dad and regards him as her brother. She helps him in whatever way she can. Arundhati Dhaware stays in one of the row houses close to a road, adjacent to the chawl. She takes care of Rani when Rani’s mother goes to Sompur for delivery. Rani has respect for her. Rani’s mother gives birth to a baby girl, Revathi.
The seventh video can be accessed on You Tube by typing, ‘Ripples Roping Memories’
