Catastrophe

We had shifted to Rajkot...on 26/12/00... trying to figure out things ..from the first day itself . My hubby still had is office to figure out ..so he had his mind to focus and me ..well totally no clue from where u to start ...the house we moved in was huge flat ..which was a bachelor pad b4 we moved in,and ..it was house to many creatures ..will come to that later ...first thing, i took into consideration was maid -so checked out with the neighbours and sorted out ...was very happy ..that my maid was on her way..but the happiness lasted for few minutes ...

The moment i opened the door ..saw a female in her mid 40 tall ...started jabbering in gujrati ...I could not make out head and tail of it ....told her i don't know ...then did the hearing impaired news broadcast...(with sign languages) phew finally she understood n said..nathi..n i said yes ...after full 1/2 an hr ...understood its not an easy task for me to make her understand what to do next ...she had a very smiling face ..n was very curious to know bout her new employer...she asked amna bhai n ben che ....(it meant here only u n Ur hubby) n what i understood that she is thinking as if we both are brother and sister ...then came the tedious task to explain to her that we are not brother and sister ..but how ..searched my album from the pile of cartons and showed her the picture ...saying no bhai n ben ....n she replied..ho..saraas che..by every passing minute i was getting irritated ...then she smiled and said ...ohhh yeha thi bhai n ben bulau chu (means its like having a new middle name or a surname ..for e.g rakesh arora will become in gujrat rakesh bhai arora and kamini shrivastava will become kamini ben shrivastava--)..so u can imagine what would have happened to my name ..don't even try to make a guess...it became anadi ben..as if i was raped by my own identity ...half of the soul could not understand the name ..so forget remembering ..and other half ..use to give me an expression that i am an alien or an Et in their town ..(look was howcome nebody can have a name like tat ..they were more use to dimple ,simple ,rinky ,pinky,kantha ben , jaya ben )...so i invented a new name for myself that was chatterjee ben ..n it worked ..attimes i had this feeling that i was representing all the chatterjees of the world ...in our very own saurashtra ...what a great feeling ..chatterjees in saurashtra meant only me ..

Pat came another query by Jaya ben (it was my maids name) I use to dread her questions ..neways she said ..aroop(my hubby s name ) mota che ...n that was like nail in the coffin....i was fuming ....(before i proceed --my hubby is slightly chubby by looks) how the hell she can say something like this about my beloved ....i calmed myself.. as even my anger wont make any sense to her ..as we had a BIG language problem ...i started saying to her ..in a very composed manner Jaya ben u told this today ...n in my presence, but i would appreciate that u reserve this comment of yours and in near future i should not hear it again ...and then she realized that things were going too far -she was laughing ...mota na bada ...nana na chotta....yes ..that s the meaning ..i also laughed ...

Somehow within a months time, i was fluent with gujrati..thanxs to my gujju teacher (Jaya ben) and she started to follow Hindi ...it was 26/01/2001 ....exactly 1 month completion of our stay .....time --8:45am... 26th jan....i am sleeping as was unwell ...down with fever ..my hubby got up at 8:15am---told me to rest as he will get the tea ready ....exactly at 8:45 am i heard a sound ..which is exactly like the helicopters blade ..it was blarring ..i culd not figure out what was happening ...then i saw next to my bed my computer table shaking vigrously ..so is the computer ...by the time i could sense ...natures fury ....was on its rage ..my hubby shouted ....moron get up ..its an earth quake ..good heavens at early in the morning i am trying hard its not happening with me ...the funniest thing how come earth quake of all in the morning ...as if its jaya ben reporting to work way before her usual time .....

Next thing i knew i ran to the drawing room bare foot ...shaking n scared....asking my hubby to do what ..man that is the time u r brain dead ...u cant even think..things around you r clattering ..shattering ....every possible sound and above all the building is shaking like a willow tree...(remember the willow tree in harry potter)...we decided to run after wasting good 5 minutes ...it was a double door exit and i had the habit of locking every possible lock ..and was cursing that day...y the hell.,did i lock last night ...anyways opened and started to run ...was not able to step properly on the staircase as the entire building was shaking ....went some flight of stairs and was thinking whether we could make it ...we were on the third floor and had to run down ...it was 8.9 on the ritcher scale ...last step we took .... n it stopped ....we came out of the building and saw the adjacent building people were looking hopelessly at our end ....hey thought we wont come down only.....we escaped death...it was a narrow escape ---we were alive just because as the terrain was rocky ...otherwise possibly could not have make .....it ...it was a very close shave ...intense ..and learnt that life is precious ..n one should enjoy every second of it ..not even a minute ,because a second can put an end to your a minute happiness.....

Holi ..........n Bhaang

Did someone mentioned Bhaang.....well this is when i was in 11th --had been to my friends place --fo holi--I fondly call her Leenu--she has 2 sisters ... yeah back to topic --wished eachother n generally warming up with putting tilak and then suddenly --a gush of spray --Leenu's younger sis with a pipe splashing water ..at both of us --before we could react we r drenched as wet cat ...hmm holi hae bura mano holi hae was the next line --neways thought of having some sweets --we were enjoying gGhujia .when her friendly neighbour dropped ....n dragged both of us to her place ....

There we had a round of splashing ,throwing balloons,rolling in the mud --getting muckier every minute --only thing i guess was left was being dismantle ...then came the ladoos ---we hogged on them and really liked it more n more with every bite ...post that her friend gave both of us a churan ki goli which we took enthusiastically.... after some time --the others were having lot of fun --as Leenu wont stop laughing ....and i wont stop saying bye --even the dog was getting a laugh n a wave from both of us ...yes --before we could realize what wrong with us ..we were the laughing stock ....the bhaang showed it..true colours on us with different shades...i don't remember what all we did --as its totally based on what others told me ...

My bro came to pick me up from my Grandpa's place --he said .."all the way from Arera colony to my home " i was waving to every living being ..micro to macro object ....and at home don't ask both my parents got the shock of the life ...i ate like i never ate before --hogged like any thing ..with constant blabbering and admonishing my dad ....constantly for standing upside down ...n asking my mum to hold me as i was flying ......it went off for quite some time till i dozed off.....

Don't know what Leenu was up to at her end --(will ask her to narrate her side of the story ....) learnt a lesson ...what bhaang can make u .do.the most unimaginable and weirdest stuff ..it was my one hell of an experience .....

Back benchers .......

I fondly remember being the back bencher for all those yrs in school not for being tall but all for the wrong reasons .We were the gang of five who were hell bent not to be attentive in class and have all the fun.right from listening to music when the class was on to eating snacks when its not lunch time , to copy each others notes.While copying I remembered we use to distribute our home works, so thoughtful one subject per person and  we ended up doing the rest in class with the same remarks from our teachers.

During exams time, half of the time use to go up in calling each other and discussing how much portion one has studied and what she has exempted . You can very well imagine that we didn't have any time to study at all .Because  by the time we realize its late and we had to  catch up on our sleep to pay off our dues by writing the damn paper .Post examination  the
discussions were quite intense n heated one .Its was never what I or my friend=attempted .It was accusing the 'ONE' who suggested to exempt a particular note/lesson by her instinct that it won't be in our question  paper and  we did agree to that at that point of time precisely at the 11th hour. BANG !! First thing you  see in the question paper is a question  from the exempted part. There is this  uncanny  feeling of being so foolish .Just somehow managed to finish the paper to catch up with my group and to inquire obviously about the exam but here it was more about blaming each other for giving mutual consent to a friend's instinct .

Another feather to my cap.This was in my 9th standard when our terminals were on and  came fully prepared with my english paper but failed to understand that half of my classmates were studying biology .Didn't bother to check thinking they are not prepared well enough.[though it was scheduled after 2 days ]and when I was handed my question  paper , I could not read a single line . I  was cold , gasped, my heart  was beating faster than normal . A kind of a feeling like a free fall from a tall building ........eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk
WHY?  well it  was a Biology paper ,what my friends were studying and  English was after 2 days so u can imagine in  what mess I was in. I  attempted very few  questions . Perfectly knew what will be the outcome.Finished my paper in an hrs time and told my teacher about the fiasco .

She was generous enough to give me a grace to save my grace.Those were the days still more to come .Keep on reading ..n do come back ...

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