Winter Morning Chai

It was Five in the morning ..bitterly cold and I was up was because I couldn't take the mosquito bites any more… Four hours of blood fest amidst my clapping and they still didn't have their fill. I zipped my jacket, borrowed shawl (quilts) from my sleeping mother and came out of our ancestral house.

I decided to take a long walk and went to the adjacent Muhalla (Locality) to Bundelkhand which houses equal proportion of Rajputs and Bhumihars with few houses of muslims as well. Rajputs are the warrior Hindu clan and Bhumihars proclaim themselves as Brahmins. Rajputs have their reservations about them and think as the name states they are nothing but land grabbers (Bhumi = land; Har=grab).

Smoke, Drink & Blood - Our way

Stage 1 – 1930’s

My cousin grandfather was working as lineman in Dumdum airport, Kolkata (now Netaji Subhash Chandra bose airport). He was from the 2^nd batch of Indians hired to do grounds work at Rs.30/month. This is something he told me two decades back… now he is dead; I don’t know where he is buried but the story he told me then got embedded in my memory and gives me some sense of pride which is easy to carry but hard to share if you know what I mean. 

He was a bachelor then came from his native place to work in Calcutta taking a loan of Rs. 50-60 from my grandfather (his brother). Life had just started for him in the new city but was going smooth he used to send half his salary back home (half the sum to his parents and half to my grandfather to clear his debt) remaining he used for his boarding and lodging in Calcutta and still saving a bit for his pending marriage. That was life in beautiful India then under British rule.

Death of Criminal me...

Although my ancestors reside in the ganglands of northern India, I never acknowledged myself from being there and for good reasons. Unlike greater part of India where common man is corrupt - they are whisker short of being criminal in my native place. I never met someone lacking in violent temperament from there...well at least till my dear Friend Sachin Vij got married.  I remember getting a big smile when I first came to know that his wife is from my native place and the very next moment I was worried about my friends well-being. You see although he is a sweetheart he is also a 'Delhiite' and like me if his roots start calling he will end up doing his peacock dance and fingering act in front of whom, hammering Delhiites' comes naturally.