A block from my memory
I suddenly remembered a funny incident from my childhood days, though it did not seem so funny at that time.This concerns my youngest brother Mausum ; he is nearly a decade younger than me, and my the apple of Ma’s eyes (still is). Ma always used to think that he was very naive and innocent, while I and my younger brother Mayur Chakravarty always knew that he was quite shrewd for his age.
This particular incident took place in Guwahati, in the year 1996. I was in Class XI at that time, and Mausum was in Class 1 or 2. One fine afternoon, I told Ma that I wanted to eat PIZZA. Pizza was a sort of exotic dish for us at that time, and there was this restaurant the was called “WALL” near St. Mary’s school near Guwahati Club. Ma gave me Rs 150/-, and I took Mausum with me. We boarded a Canter bus (the city buses that ply in Guwahati). I sat on the second row, and Mausum sat two rows behind me. He used to feel shy travelling with his spectacle clad elder sister who used to boss him around. So he sat on a separate seat. After sometime, I heard him talking with someone. This is how the conversation went, though I may have forgotten the exact words.
Stranger:” Bhaiti, where do you stay? And who else is there at home?”
The nice man was starting a conversation with the shy “innocent looking” young boy.
Mausum: ” Oh, we stay at New Guwahati..” And then he gave a detailed description of the location of our home, our phone number and also the directions to reach the place.
The next cliche question from the stranger :”Where does you father work?”
Now, we had lost Deuta when I was all of twelve years. That was a very very tragic incident in our lives, but we had moved ahead. Mausum was too young to even remember Deuta properly.
I was dumbstruck when he started to say, “Uncle, Deuta was killed…”. How could he share this things with a complete stranger? And the stranger sighed..I turned around, making it clear with my expressions that Mausum should shut his mouth. But my dear brother continued, ” I have just one pair of school uniform. Every evening, Ma washes it and I wear it the next day. It has become tattered and old. I read old school books which I get from my school seniors…” Brother dear started to paint such a sorry picture that by the time we reached Guwahati Club bus stoppage , the stranger was almost in tears.
I was burning with indignation and anger. All my anticipation of a nice bite of Pizza vanished in thin air. I pulled Mausum out of the bus, took and auto rickshaw and rushed back home. I told Ma what he had told the stranger. Ma got very angry. She asked Mausum why had he said so to someone whom he did not know. To this, Mausum replied nonchalantly, ” Ma, yesterday you refused to give me money to buy Uncle Chips. So I asked the Uncle in the bus to buy me one..”
Ma, as usual, believed him and told me that I was exaggerating the entire incident.
I was very very upset with Ma. How could she even think that I had imagined such a conversation ? At night after a bland dinner of rice and dal (and no pizza), Mausum whispered to me ” Tomorrow the Uncle will come to give me chips…” The cheeky lad..I gave him a sound slap.
The next day, we were sitting in the verandah of our home. Just then the “Uncle” opened the gate and started coming towards our home. I told Ma that this was the person that her “innocent” son was talking with the previous day. The person had a huge polybag with him. He greeted Ma and told her that after hearing the state of affairs of the “young” boy he felt very sad ; that’s why he had brought a pair of school uniform (Mausum had already told him which school he went to), some story books and 10-15 packets of Uncle Chips. Ma was caught unawares. We had no option but to accept his donations.
And then, the beating that Mausum got from Ma can only be compared to the bashing up of Gabbar Singh by Jai and Veeru in SHOLAY. Ma made Mausum eat all the packets of Uncle Chips in one go (and which he ACTUALLY did)…
But from that day on wards my dear brother stopped making up stories…..His penchant for Uncle Chips continues till date, and now he realizes that you have to earn your chips and not beg for them; but yes, he learnt his lesson the harder way.
Rimu (Mausum’s pet name), please forgive me for sharing this. I know you will not mind, and some more of your stories will follow in this forum…
Your loving Ba………
This particular incident took place in Guwahati, in the year 1996. I was in Class XI at that time, and Mausum was in Class 1 or 2. One fine afternoon, I told Ma that I wanted to eat PIZZA. Pizza was a sort of exotic dish for us at that time, and there was this restaurant the was called “WALL” near St. Mary’s school near Guwahati Club. Ma gave me Rs 150/-, and I took Mausum with me. We boarded a Canter bus (the city buses that ply in Guwahati). I sat on the second row, and Mausum sat two rows behind me. He used to feel shy travelling with his spectacle clad elder sister who used to boss him around. So he sat on a separate seat. After sometime, I heard him talking with someone. This is how the conversation went, though I may have forgotten the exact words.
Stranger:” Bhaiti, where do you stay? And who else is there at home?”
The nice man was starting a conversation with the shy “innocent looking” young boy.
Mausum: ” Oh, we stay at New Guwahati..” And then he gave a detailed description of the location of our home, our phone number and also the directions to reach the place.
The next cliche question from the stranger :”Where does you father work?”
Now, we had lost Deuta when I was all of twelve years. That was a very very tragic incident in our lives, but we had moved ahead. Mausum was too young to even remember Deuta properly.
I was dumbstruck when he started to say, “Uncle, Deuta was killed…”. How could he share this things with a complete stranger? And the stranger sighed..I turned around, making it clear with my expressions that Mausum should shut his mouth. But my dear brother continued, ” I have just one pair of school uniform. Every evening, Ma washes it and I wear it the next day. It has become tattered and old. I read old school books which I get from my school seniors…” Brother dear started to paint such a sorry picture that by the time we reached Guwahati Club bus stoppage , the stranger was almost in tears.
I was burning with indignation and anger. All my anticipation of a nice bite of Pizza vanished in thin air. I pulled Mausum out of the bus, took and auto rickshaw and rushed back home. I told Ma what he had told the stranger. Ma got very angry. She asked Mausum why had he said so to someone whom he did not know. To this, Mausum replied nonchalantly, ” Ma, yesterday you refused to give me money to buy Uncle Chips. So I asked the Uncle in the bus to buy me one..”
Ma, as usual, believed him and told me that I was exaggerating the entire incident.
I was very very upset with Ma. How could she even think that I had imagined such a conversation ? At night after a bland dinner of rice and dal (and no pizza), Mausum whispered to me ” Tomorrow the Uncle will come to give me chips…” The cheeky lad..I gave him a sound slap.
The next day, we were sitting in the verandah of our home. Just then the “Uncle” opened the gate and started coming towards our home. I told Ma that this was the person that her “innocent” son was talking with the previous day. The person had a huge polybag with him. He greeted Ma and told her that after hearing the state of affairs of the “young” boy he felt very sad ; that’s why he had brought a pair of school uniform (Mausum had already told him which school he went to), some story books and 10-15 packets of Uncle Chips. Ma was caught unawares. We had no option but to accept his donations.
And then, the beating that Mausum got from Ma can only be compared to the bashing up of Gabbar Singh by Jai and Veeru in SHOLAY. Ma made Mausum eat all the packets of Uncle Chips in one go (and which he ACTUALLY did)…
But from that day on wards my dear brother stopped making up stories…..His penchant for Uncle Chips continues till date, and now he realizes that you have to earn your chips and not beg for them; but yes, he learnt his lesson the harder way.
Rimu (Mausum’s pet name), please forgive me for sharing this. I know you will not mind, and some more of your stories will follow in this forum…
Your loving Ba………
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