2ND ENTRY :DOWN MEMORY LANE

(Prelude: There’s a complaint from someone nearest to my soul that my writings are always lined by a tint of melancholy which makes her sad! So,this attempt is to make her happy.)

Remember that greedy,stupid Teesri? She was 11 then,reading in 5th standard.Two years back her parents had been blessed with yet another female-child! But this girl was a dear to everyone since she’d brought good-luck to the family,such as two big jumps in working-place for her father and lot more. Anyway,Teesri was not much benefitted by it.She was promoted from 4th to 5th standard on trial….,though she herself was not much worried about it! Her Didi,the eldest daughter of the family, whom she loved the most,was somehow feeling guilty for it. May be she was thinking that she was supposed to monitor her before exam. However,one day she called Teesri and tried to make her realise the seriousness of a "promotion-on-trial"! She even scared her by saying that if Teesri didn’t stand within 1st to 5th rank, she’d be demoted to 4th st. again. This was a real shock for Teesri and she became serious! And….hard to believe but it happened so that she stood 3rd in Half-yearly exam and was a topper in Annual ! Yes !! The first position in class! May be it’s nothing for you, friends; but the confidence,the happiness,the satisfaction it brought to her acted as the elixir for her for the rest of her life!

She realised,neither anyone can make you happy other than your own self; nor does it matter whether you’re being taken care of by someone !

This was the entry-no.2 in her chest of golden moments !!

ENTRY 1 : DOWN-MEMORY-LANE

Experience of being a third girl-child to a middle-class service-holder in mid-nineteens is neither exciting nor memorable ! Still there are a few moments those can be cherished and stored in the golden chest of MEMORY ! One of such rare moments is being delivered.

It was a Sunday. The day started normally with nothing very special, until the above-mentioned TEESREE of the family did something unusual. There was a big earthen pot of lime (chunaa ) in the house since her parents were in the habit of chewing PAAN (beetle-leaf). That day her mother bought a new pot and soaked some edible limestones with water and kept on the dining-table. Teesree unknowingly discovered it and out of ignorance thought it to be Mishti dahee (yoghurt) ! The 4-year old kid could’nt resist her greed and took a big spoon to try some of it secretly! But as soon as the act was over……you can imagine what happened to the poor soul. At first she wanted not to tell a word of it to anybody since any sort of pampering was missing for her in the house. But the pain was beyond tolerance and was revealed. She got ready to accept a cruel punishment which temporarily helped her to forget even that immense pain of a burnt tongue. But to her surprise, both her didi-s lifted her on their laps, tears rolled down her mother’s cheeks and……..on top of everything her father rushed out of the house and returned within a few seconds with a small pot of Mishti dahee and placed before her. This was the FIRST GOLDEN MEMORY stored in her heart !!!