Hello, we will all get into the Christmas mood very soon! A video on the end of chapter eight of ‘Ripples Roping Memories’ is presented.
There is the Oswal family. Father is a businessman. The family has many kids, six sons and a daughter. Mrs. Oswal is always in ‘ghungat’ or veil. Next to the Oswal family is Mr. Sarawate’s joint family. Mr. Sarawate has two sons and a daughter called Deepika. Ramesh and Alok are his sons. Alok Sarawate is handicapped. He succeeds in securing a good job in a government office. The Sarawate family conducts bhajans in their house on Thursdays. Thursday obviously is saint Sai Baba’s day. Ramesh gets married. Deepika calls her sister in law as ‘vaini’. Vaini is fair and short. Ramesh does not speak much. Things in the family are conducted according to the wishes of Mr. Sarawate and his wife. Both are aggressive by nature. They torture their daughter in law. Although vaini does all the household work, she is not given proper food to eat. She stands out of the house in the corridor, asking Rani’s sisters if they have something for her to eat. Sisters go home and fetch some home- made bread for her. Vaini is pregnant. The climax of the torture reaches when her father in law beats her. Rani feels sad and horrified. If the in laws find vaini talking to anyone outside the house, she is tortured even more. Vaini gives birth to a son, Santosh. Deepika is tall and fair like her mother. She marries a doctor from Palas. A big pandal is erected in front of the building for her marriage. The neighbors enjoy the banquet of Deepika’s wedding.
The last in the line is the Trivedi family. It is a joint family consisting of mother in law, daughter in law and sons. Ramesh Trivedi works as an officer in a bank. All of a sudden, he is struck by a heart attack and dies. The daughter in law remains with the family and secures the job of a clerk in the same bank where her husband has worked as an officer. Another prominent family is the Shinde family. They live downstairs. Mr. Shinde has two sons, Mahindra and Chandrashekhar and a daughter, Sayali. All are fair in the family. Sayali’s mother has put some fish to dry outside the house. Rani passes by and comments, ‘Shi, what a stink! Do you eat such fish?’ Sayali’s mother says, ‘What did you say? We eat fish.’ Rani replies, ‘Yes. This fish has a foul smell’ Sayali’s mother smiles and says, ‘Chup’ which means ‘keep quiet’. Rani is asked to sell some tickets to people by her school for watching a popular patriotic Hindi film. The Shinde family purchases the ticket and gives it back to Rani. Sayali’s mother says, ‘Take this ticket and you watch the movie instead of me’ Rani goes to the Gauri theatre where the film is shown. Rani is impressed by the two songs in the film. The first song is ‘Hothon pe sachayi rehati hai, Jahan dil mein safayi rehati hai, Hum us desh ke wasi hein, hum us desh ke wasi hein, Jis desh mein Ganga behati hai’ The second song is, ‘O—–Basanti, pawan paagal, Na ja re na ja— Roko koyi————O Basanti’
Rani has a Mangalorean friend, Pavithra Kamath. Her father has a shop on the sixth lane of Siddarthnagar. Her father sells betel nuts, cigarettes, betel leaves and lime. While going to school, Rani drops into the shop. The shop smells of beedis. Rani comes out of the shop because she cannot bear the smell of beedis. Pavithra is less inclined towards studies and she fails in Math. She does not have a brother. The family is an ardent devotee of Lord Ganesha. Pavithra has a round face. She smiles a lot and takes life easy. She stops her schooling when she fails in the ninth grade.
Rani’s brothers do not spare Gopal kala and Holi celebrations. On Gopal kala day, boys form a pyramid and buckets of water is poured on them. On the first day of Holi, a bonfire is created in the memory of Holika who wanted to burn bhakta Prahalad, a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Another version is kama or lust is burnt in fire. People make puran polis and other sweetmeats during this festival. On the second day of Holi is Rangapanchami. People smear mud and colors like gulal on each other. Rani’s brothers take delight in messing their clothes, laughing, jumping and rolling in mud like animals.
This much for this video. Thank you for listening. We meet again for the next video. Goodbye!
( Video can be viewed on You Tube by typing ‘Ripples Roping Memories’)
