Sunday, June 17, 2007

as the champa stands


i carefully pasted a tiny piece of tinsel on the one foot replica of the rath. i could barely wait for the evening. this was a day that all us kids looked forward to.
appa patiently cut up shiny gold and silver papers. ma had made some home made gum, made by boiling wheat flour with some water.
i dont think there was a concept of fevicol in those days!
it was the day of the festival of the rath yatra. while huge, spectacularly decorated raths, would be pulled at jagannathpuri, we kids pulled these little wooden replicas around the colony.
there was a big competition among us, whose rath would be the largest or the grandest?!
the earlier year, goldie had won hands down! his rath had three floors! it was almost as high as him and he had strutted around like a bandy little rooster, pulling it behind him.
we had all crowded around him,begging for a turn to pull his rath... it looked so magnificent!
i stuck the last bit of coloured paper in my little rath and carefully placed the idols of krishna, balaram and subhadra. i could barely conceal my excitement! i had a major trump card up my sleeve this year!
an uncle had gifted my big, brother a tiny row of battery operated coloured lights. if you turned a tiny switch on, the lights would blink, making lovely little sequences of red and green twinkles.
i had begged and cajoled my brother into loaning it to me for one day. he gave them to me with strict instructions... and dire threats about all the things that could happen to me if i messed the lights up. nobody was to touch it, not even me.
when all finishing touches and sequins had been pasted on to the rath, and it was time to go down to the colony, then he would put the lights in for me (when the time was right, he added cryptically, until then i was to pipe down and keep mum and still)!
as evening drew near, i could barely sit still.
the minute i heard my bumchum pappu call out for me, i ran to my big brother and gave him my best-little-puppy-beseeching-look.
we gathered near the champa tree, an assorted bunch of kids, pappu, scrawny with stubborn hair that stood on its edge like a coconut; goldie, with a brand new three-foot rath, all smug; chotkun and bodkun the twins, wearing identical clothes yet again; and me in my usual shorts and t-shirt (i never wore frocks, and all my friends were boys, in fact i dont think i had discovered yet that i was a girl).
i looked at all the raths, they all looked so grand! pappu's rath was red and gold and had little minarets in them, the twins had purple, green and gold raths with tiny paper horses cut out in the front! goldie's rath looked grand, it was three feet high, on the topmost floor he had put glitter paper and his new dinky car, in the second floor there were flowers and on the bottom floor, were the three lovely idols, each floor had a gauze curtain which had been tied with a satin ribbon! i looked at my rath, it looked plain in comparison, but appa had cut some paper patterns for me and they looked lovely. it was still daylight, and my trump card was hidden behind the idols in my rath.
we stuffed our mouths with crystallised sugar candies and began pulling the raths around the colony. some aunties called out to us and gave us some delicious shondesh and mishties to eat.
i looked at the darkening sky with glee.
my brother appeared like an apparition and while pretending to examine my rath, turned the lights on and set them in the front of the idols!
they twinkled red and green and lit up my little chariot! i looked around and saw all the boys go, "oooh!". the red and green twinkles cast lovely patterns on the bits of gold and silver paper and my rath looked grand!
suddenly all the boys wanted turns at pullling my rath, goldie forgot his goliath and for once looked a little deflated. my brother gave me a conspiratorial wink and disappeared.
i could barely stop grinning!

tiny bits of tinsel and some coloured lights... this was enough once to fill our hearts with glee.
the champa still stands... but we have journeyed so far.

1 comment:

The Ultimate Motorcyclist said...

Maan !! Some awesome childhood memories you have dear. How could you narrate things with so much detail?

Nice account though. Looks like you have been around in the eastern sector of india for quite some time. The actual sight of the puri rathyatra is definitely awesome..

Cheers

Ultimate Motorcyclist !!