BUILD YOUR HOUSE ON THE ROCK (Part-XXXV) Within no time, the trio prepared breakfast for me. The food consisted of steamed rice with Mvvn lwgla Oik Kvvnam (Oik leaves stewed with dried fish) and Lugyu. Oik, a green leafy shrub found in abundance on the slopes of the hills and foothills abandoned after harvesting of cereal crops for re growth of the bushes, used to be the most sought after vegetable in the rural areas. It yields a slippery and tasty gravy. It can very well supplement pulses. Almost all people of the rural areas of the undivided Siang district used to consume this vegetable. That is why perhaps no mal nutrition was generally seen among them despite their very sparse use of grams and pulses for support dishes or food supplements. Green chilly when boiled, ground and salted, is called Lugyu. This item helps tickling of the tongue with the burning sensation produced by the chilly and activates the salivary glands for enhancement of appetite. The food was served on a green leaf and placed on a murah while I sat on another murah. Sompa, the naughty-witty belle, also sat on a murah at the opposite end, facing me straight, to serve and guide me to eat. She kept prompting me to eat more and asked me not to be shy like a girl but to eat like a man! And that on the contrary, made me feel awkward and shy! It was a tough time for me, as I had never faced such a situation in life . Somehow, I got over with the food and Sompa took away the leaves and utensils. I felt the relief of getting away from her! The old woman, who was silently observing us, suddenly spoke : Ome gaddv ahin vm albv moru kubdw vi! (Don’t know if the children cooked the food well !) Sompa asked her not to worry. She assured the old woman that they had cooked the food as best as they could. Aanti told that the old woman was the mother of her elder brother and she had hearing problem. I told her about the murmurings of the old woman and her mention of someone named Talw in the morning. Aanti told that actually the old woman was referring to her son, whose real name was Tumlw ,. I came to know that Aanti’s parents were close relatives of her asi Tumlw. After her parents passed away untimely, her asi (elder brother) was taking care of her and her two younger siblings, both boys. It was the time of Durga Puja. Aalo being the headquarters of several defense establishments like the Assam Rifles, the Gorkha Regiment, the Military Engineering Service etc., had many people of various sects of Hinduism. Durga Puja used to be celebrated with most pomp and gaiety by the Gorkhas of 9-GR and the Assam Rifles cantonment here. The ceremony of sacrifice of buffalo to Maa Durga at 9-GR Puja altar used to be most famous. My young hosts proposed that we should visit the Puja Pandals at Aalo. The talking thing could be done in the evening after returning from Aalo. That meant a total of sixteen kilometers walking on foot, eight kilometers to and eight from Aalo! And I had not much of walking experience either. But what worried me was not the walking thing. It was the talking that I had to do with Aanti’s asi. I had come from far away Pasighat to talk to Aanti’s folks to let her look after my mother in the hospital. But I had not yet seen the main person. Yet I could not say no to the ladies as they were so eager to visit the Puja at Aalo. In fact they had been preparing for this day since long time back. While walking down to Aalo through the paved road, my lady hosts expressed the apprehension that Aanti’s folks wouldn’t allow her to go to my village or to the hospital at Pasighat to look after Naan. Unless one is related by blood, a girl of our community couldn’t go out of her house to help someone in a far off place. The only way it could be done was through matrimony. And I nor Aanti had ever thought on this line! Aanti was full of compassion and honestly wished to help Naan and see her get well. But there seemed no way to do that. She did not talk much, yet an aura of kindness was felt around her. She had seen tragedy in tender age, with both of her parents passing away one after the other just within a time gap of one year and lived a life of suffering throughout. She was not even fortunate enough to go to any school. This perhaps filled her heart with tenderness whenever people talked of pain and suffering. As a matter of fact the lady trio that fed me that morning and took me to see Durga Puja at Aalo consisted of non school goers. None of them had any formal education. Yet they seemed so matured in their thought. I thought of Jyotsna, my friend back at Pasighat, who seemed to be not bound by social taboo like our society had, in helping and looking after Naan. But then I reasoned within myself that perhaps she was doing her bit for me because of nearness of her parents’ house from the hospital. Her visiting of the hospital was not noticed by anyone around her so far. If she had to go to a distant place to look after Naan, perhaps she too wouldn’t go! After making a round of the Puja pandals, we came away to the market place for little purchasing the ladies wanted to do. I didn’t wish to see the sacrificing of buffalo at 9-GR as I found it hard to witness the act of barbarism and cruelty on the helpless beast. I also had avoided seeing the sacrifice of mithuns in the Togu ceremony of Gir sir in my village years ago. Deba wanted me to take photograph with the three of them in a photo studio. In the studio, after the group photo, Sompa asked Aanti and me to get a snap taken together. We did. The studio owner said it would take about two week’s time to deliver the prints. The photos would be in black and white as the concept of colour photo had just begun only, hadn’t arrived at Aalo then. Sompa suggested we go to the movie theatre instead and witness whatever movie was shown there. The only theatre for civilian pubic at Aalo was Mima Hall located at the Old Market. It was bustling with life by the time we reached there. People were standing on queue in front of the ticket window, vying with each other to purchase tickets. We were joined there by one more friend of Aanti , whose nickname was Anima. She was a strongly built sporty looking lady of the age of Sompa. She volunteered to stand in the line of women in the ticket window, to buy the tickets for five of us. Thankfully, I parted with twenty five bucks, feeling comfortable that my lodging being in the village instead of Baruah Canteen, I would save enough to return home comfortably even after buying the movie tickets. I didn’t have to stand on queue and sweat! Naam gum jaayega, Chehra yah badal jaayega Meri aawaaz hi pehchaan hai Gar yaad rahe….. This duet, beautifully rendered by Lata Mangeshkar and Bhupinder for the Jeetendra, Dharmendra, Hema Malini starrer movie Kinara, has remained imprinted in my memory over the years. Mima Hall had a sound system that made it difficult for the viewer to distinguish between the voices of Jeetendra and Dharmendra. Yet this song was clearly audible and its meaning was wonderful. I was good in Hindi in my class and my friends back at Pasighat used to be spell bound at my capacity to remember cinema songs alpha to omega just after listening to them once! By the time we returned to Darka after viewing the first show of Kinara, it was already dark and late at night in the standards of the village. Aanti’s family had their dinner and slept. Four of the ladies made a bed for me in the tiny room of the veranda after a hasty dinner. They placed drinking water in a bottle and a glass and left to sleep in the house of Sompa. So no meeting with Aanti’s asi took place that evening as was planned. To be continued…..
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 17:33:46 +0000
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