Your Meethi Ma Told Me Her Tale..

My Dear Reha,

There had been long long patches in our life when we found the going tough. At times we became weak, but we never allowed these life-threatening skirmishes to overpower us. We always tried to extract happy moments from out of the traumatic experiences we were subjected to, due to our frequent visits to the hospital and the court. Togetherness in our family played a very important role to keep us ticking.

On one such day , sometime in Aug 2014, when things were not very comfortable, your Meethi Ma got nostalgic. We were lying on our bed just talking and She started remembering Her childhood ….Her eyes became moist when She thought of Her parents, Her parental home in Ambala, Sister-Brother fight, Her humble beginning, Her struggle in life…..She thanked God to have given Her so much………

She told me Her story that brought tears in my eyes…..I recorded Her words as they came. …….I knew I did not have much time……..

(“ Pita ji used to bring sweets every evening. Sometimes Burfi, sometimes Chchena Murki, and some other time Kalakand. I was in class eight perhaps and Sushil in class III. We would sit on the stairs of the house in the evening and wait for Pita ji…….and the moment he would come, Sushil would snatch the bag from his hand to take out the sweets. Pita ji would say, ‘O Khotay ! Let me get into the house first.’ But Sushil would not listen. I would keep telling him, let us share and share alike, but he would give me much less.

Sushil would eat his share in a jiffy. I would save mine under the pillow to eat after the dinner .

We used to sleep on the terrace, Sushil would come to me and say

‘ Give me, please give me, please give me a bit’

I would say, ‘you had your share’

He would command , ‘give me or else…..’ He would pull my hair, take the sweets and run away……..

We had a rented house. There was no electricity connection. The landlord would not get us one. We used to study after borrowing the connection for a bulb from our neighbour…….

Pita ji had got started construction of our two storied house. The Peepal tree that came on the way had got to be cut and folks around told us that it was a bad omen. Pita ji’s health had started deteriorating……from then onwards…..

After Pitaji’s death, the landlord asked us to vacate the house. My mother told him ,

‘Let my daughter complete her studies, then we will vacate the house’ .

The landlord threatened to sue us. My mother started crying. I too started crying……..

No pocket money . I never ate anything in the school…..

When friends were invited , there was no dining table…….

Sushil used to take pocket money from me. He would eat on credit in the canteen. My salary was Rs 700 and his canteen Bill Rs 300 that I would pay.

I got my BA results , 15 days after the demise of Pita ji ! He would always tell me ,

‘My health has put me down but I want to make a doctor out of you…….’

One year on, I got my job. Meanwhile, my Mama and Masi helped us. But they would not eat food in our house. Neighbours would prepare meals for them. When we shifted to our own house, they used to pay us for their meals ……

I got first division in tenth class and that was when I saw the movie for the first time………”)