Hello! Enjoy the winter season. This is a video on chapter eight of ‘Ripples Roping Memories’.
The festival of Gokulashtami is on. Mom prepares cheedai akin to cheeselets, murukku and sweets. It is night. Mom has drawn footprints of Lord Krishna using rice batter but Hari is not to be found anywhere in the house. It is raining heavily. Rani fears the torrential rain. She prays to God for her brother Hari. Hari comes home after two days. He remains without food and bath for two days sleeping on railway platforms. Rani cannot understand the anomalous behavior of Hari. Mother accommodates him when he returns home.
Navratri festival is celebrated inside Rani’s building compound. Gujaratis live in Rani’s building and in Neel Dongri. Ladies and girls assemble around nine at night to celebrate celestial garba tradition. Aunt Hema dresses Rani in a traditional Gujarati saree. Rani’s eyelashes are painted. Black small spots of kajal and bindi are put above her eyelashes. Songs in praise of Goddess Ambaji are sung. A clay pot having small holes on its sides is kept. The ghagri or the pot has a mud wick lamp burning inside it. Men watch garba. The Mansukhlal family is prominent during the garba season. The open space behind Gujarati man’s shop in Neel Dongri is used for garba. Aunt Stella joins garba.
Economic limitation mars the celebration of Diwali. Rani divides the limited crackers and labels it. She gives to each of her brothers and sisters a pack of it. Sisters put their hands on ears when crackers burst. Mohan is frightened. He has to be trained to hold the sparklers. While holding the sparkler, he tries to move behind. Sometimes he drops the sparkler and runs away. Sisters coax him and bring him back to hold the sparkler. Mom prepares delicious Diwali sweets. Dad joins mom in smearing oil on tender bodies of children. Children are given bath one by one. They are given crackers and sweets. Mom draws rangoli and Rani lights lamps. Goddess Laxshmi is propitiated. The family goes to the temple wearing their new dresses on the auspicious day of Naraka Chaturdashi. On the previous eve before Diwali mom prepares bhajjis, fried pappadams and onion sambhar. Aunt Janaki and aunt Hema join the festival. Aunt Hema makes a salted crispy eatable called thattai made mostly of rice during Diwali.
In Rani’s building lives the principal of a school. He lives downstairs and is a strict disciplinarian. He does not tolerate naughtiness in children. His wife has put beds to dry outside the house. Straight above the beds is Rani’s balcony. It is a Sunday. The principal comes out and sees his beds burning. He shouts at Rani and her brothers and sisters. He scolds them in Gujarati, ‘Aa Madrasino baccho nathi, rakshash che. Bisthar ma aag naki di di..’ Dad knows that his children have not done it. He asks his children whether anyone of them is responsible for it. Children deny it because they were in the neighbor’s house playing business games. The following Sundays pass off peacefully. One fine Sunday the Principal comes out of his house and finds red color spits on his sparkling white beds. Dad sees that the Principal does not complain about it to anyone. He takes his beds quietly into his house. The Principal is silenced because he knows that red color spits have come from the second floor where landlord stays.
Vandana Kulkarni stays next to Rani’s house. She has a cute little daughter called as ‘Chimmi’ lovingly. Vandana teaches Rani’s mother to make Dashmi using jowar flour and milk. She makes sweet jaggery pickles out of raw mangoes. Vandana speaks in Hindi to Rani’s mother because Rani’s mother cannot speak Marathi fluently. The Kulkarni family shifts and a Gujarat family becomes Rani’s neighbor. The man’s name is Ramaniklal Doshi and his wife’s name is Jamunaben. Wife is from rural Gujarat. They have children, Beena, Bimala and Suresh. The family is close to Pande family which lives in the next house after Doshi. Vinod Pande is a successful businessman. His wife’s name is Namrata. They have three children. Namrata is fair and short. She flirts with Ramaniklal Doshi. Doshi is enamored by her beauty, smartness and luscious whispers. Ramaniklal gets up to wish her and spend some time with her. Rani’s dad is an important spectator. He opens the ventilator above the door of his house and watches Namrata running toward Doshi and talking to him in whispers and when Namrata goes to her house next door, Doshi runs after her. Rani’s dad narrates all the incidents to Rani’s mom who gets infuriated. She scolds dad, ‘Do you have shame? Why should you be interested in such affairs?’
This much for this video. Thank you for listening. I come again with another video. Goodbye!
( Video can be viewed on You Tube by typing, ‘Ripples Roping Memories’)
