A smile through tears

Such a boring day!! Nothing was working out.. I shot a stupid video and got solid firing from Wasim sir. Was thinking of bunking class and going home. Suddenly, my ding ding ding rang de basanti ring tone made a big hullabaloo in the class, my lecturer showed me the 'exit'..

On phone my bro yelled “you are.. you are such a jinx?? What is your rashi stupid? How am I going to face dadi? Oh god what you did?” all confused I asked him what had happened. The reply was nothing but a long silence. He asked me to go home.

I was really scared when I reached. dadi’s place was all crowded.. most of them were wearing white. I entered the drawing room. The chilled atmosphere was terrific.. “digambara “ was playing on dadi’s juke box.. a white colour cloth had covered 6 foot lifeless body of dada surrounded by coconut diyas. Beside, dadi was crying bitterly.. The zeal of her face had disappeared. I could understand the pain.. I looked at the staircase.. all pandus were on it in ascending order with wet eyes and sour looks. I would have soon joined them unless I was stopped by a loud cry of dadi’s daughter. Everybody put a pause of his or her mourning including dadi. Her yelp could do nothing better than an 18th century stage opera. Respecting the situation none of the pandus made any comment!


September 10, 2007

I slowly realized why bro hassled me on phone. The day I stepped, dada passed away. What a rashi I have!! I felt the look of everybody’s face stabbing me.
“we didn’t have your number” Budhu showed her concern my being late. “Dada was not keeping well since long time, he was diseased last night” Pandu joined us. “Don’t worry, we know what are you thinking” tushi wiped her eyes and patted my shoulders. “what we could do is to pray for his soul to rest in peace” Mullu was struggling with her snotty red nose to keep it under control. Babes reached after me, I looked at her, the same ‘passive face’. “Oh god what an attitude” I thought.

The day went off… without any panduism

First night (dirty mind, don’t misunderstand now)

I asked pandu “where is bathroom?” she pointed to the extreme end of the room.

OMG!! What an exotic interior!! A spacious spick and span bathroom with a cosy bathtub, perfumed candles surrounding it, the towels hung on the cane that complement the wall painting, auto taps that give you both warm and cold water…..

I came out of fantasy when a cockroach jumped over my head, a lizard stopped aiming at a spider and waited for 'another steamy scene'.. I screamed at pandu to turn the light on.. I could hear her laughing and yelping back “the light is on dear” … I looked at the zero bulb right above my head, which I thought a glowworm .. I stepped into the bathroom, gratefully those slimy floor tiles could give me an ankle sprain for two days!!

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I had a heavy dinner with my bro, so missed the delicious and nutritious dinner of Food Aunt. (I love my bro for it)

I sat on my bed expecting the threesome to speak to me.. babes was not there as she was wandering upstairs..still on phone!!?? Anyway I started listening to their conversation

Mullu: Pari did this..pari said that.. pari could have done this… pari scolded me…. I fought with pari.. im not going to call pari…tikka tikka …. Shall I poke you on your tummy tushi? Hey pari is calling … I feel like singing or shall I dance .. I solved the problem with pari… he is such a sweetu.. pari is so caring… pari was really busy… pari gifted me this… I hate aunt’s food.. today also she had made that mashed potato of hers .. I hope she must have kept curd for me

Pandu: you know what?? Einstein’s brain was removed after his death. So they can find out what made him so brilliant.. I don’t mind being a receptionist at NASA.. there are 33% indians in NASA.. I wanna marry someone from NASA.. I love techi guys man! He should be tall, handsome, smart, professional, no non sense.. on my b’day he should decorate my room with full of teddys and red colour balloons, then he will carry me to my bed.. we will sing “ Suraj hua maddham, chaand jalne laga” (with full actions and expressions), then he will go to the hall and sleep on the couch … wow “how romantic!!” isn’t it??

Tushi: (on phone) “Naru… mein kal ayega.. pakka?? Don’t fail…”
Hey Mulle, (mix language Malayalam, hindi and english) that patti (dog) in my office did not give me good rating yaar. It’s gonna affect my appraisal. Im sure im gonna kill that one.. you know what dadi did today.. she turned that tap off and filled cold water for me in the morning.. I didn’t realize I poured it directly on my head and got frozen.. I came out and filled two buckets of hot water and took bath.. what a female man.. would she do that with her grand daughter?? She doesn’t know me well.. hummm


My attention turned to another unfamiliar voice and saw a little stout girl entering the room. Tall and had specs and her eyebrows upwards!! She was also on phone.. her biological age seemed to be 23 but what happened to her voice?? She was talking like a kid that reminded me of an old Malayalam movie “first bell”
“Mummy kutti, chippi here, what are you doing?? I had food….. podi mummy!! (a highly offensive address in Malayalam) ..mottu called you or what?? (what a family???)
She was wearing a salwar cameez, she removed her tag and threw it on my bed, she removed her duppata and threw on my bed and removed her bag and threw on my bed… (hellooooo what's going on?? Stripping or what??) She cut the call and looked at me!! “who are you???” (her voice was apt to her biological age now) This Budhu was the first one who started a conversation with me.

I said “im a budding journalist”.. all I could hear was a roar of astonishment “what???? Are you a journalist??” All pandus came and sat next to me to know more about my yet-to-start profession.
There started my life with these sweet pandus and my mutation as a ‘pandu’