Dad s Nani Ghar

The children have a busier schedule than the mommies.  A friend came over for dinner and she said something wonderful, "Remember, You chose it. "

After that ,I could not complain about the children schools, the birthday parties, the food habits, my tiredneess, the money the schools charge,  the projects to be done for them, why mothers are not invited for a six year olds birthday parties, why children dont eat all that is cooked at home but choose what they fancy from the menu.

I had an hour to kill before I could fetch Devika from her drama class and drop her to a birthday party . Pranaya and self were ambling in the bylanes of Khar. They are so beautiful and green. Saw a Jodha Akbar poster in a flat and figured it must be the director s office. Outside the gate , there were flowers on the pavement called Champa. The tree was inside the gate and the pavement was full of these white flowers. Nostalgia filled me up when I picked up one for Pranaya.

My Dad s Nani ghar had the same tree at the entrance. Me and my Mom would always pick up the flowers and smell them. At nightfall the whole area would have the fragrance. They had a palatial house with the longest driveway I have ever seen. As soon as I d get the fragrance I knew I was in my most favourite place in the world. The fondest memories of my childhood and adolescence are attached to this house and the peple who lived there. It was in a place called Dhobatand. No there were no dhobies there. The front lawn was surrounded  by mehndi bushes.

The portico had lot of flowering creepers surrounding it. The house was a broad U shaped open on three sides with a huge aangan in the centre. In the right of the aangan s main gate there was a tulsi kyara. Again we had rose bushes edging the whole aangan. Jute charpais which we called khatiya were there for visitors. they had four rooms which worked as kitchen and store rooms and one room was called chaas waala kamra where only milk, curds, butter and chhaas was stored. One room the servants cooked and one kitchen for the ladies of the house. The washing area was outside. One for the clothes, one for the vessels and one for the servants to wash their feet before they entered the house.

All the rooms opened into a huge corridor with large  almost french windows. Curtains were put in winters and summers the windows had jute blinds. I was allowed to water the blinds in summers to keep the house cool.

This was the first house and the only house where I got to sleep on pristine white bed sheets. In the nights when the beds were made ,all slept on pure white sheets. In the 'no -washing machine, days how they managed it is a mystery to me.