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Background to Rajput Bhawan:
My maternal grand father had built a home in Dhanbad (Jharkhand state of India) called "Rajput Bhawan". A mansion by any measure, it was packed with fun, laughter, singing and play for more than a decade. I got to experience the joy of visiting and enjoying Rajput Bhawan full blast till about the age 8 or 9 .. but the memories of those early days are vivid and alive for me.
Further, Rajput Bhawan was where I was brought from hospital, when I was born .. so in reality the 1st home I knew.
I am the 6th eldest amongst the cousins (we number 16) and perhaps the youngest who truly got to enjoy this place (as it fell almost completely apart by 1980 when I was 9).
Background to the most important characters in this note:
- Babu - my maternal grandfather, the patriarch
- Putul Mausi - the youngest of my Mausis (maternal aunts) and one of us, the kids
- Tunnu Mama - the youngest of 7 kids of my grandad and the only son
- Anu Didi - my eldest cousin sis
- Raja Bhaiya - elder cousin brother
- Anju Bhaiya - elder cousin brother
- Sonu Di - my elder cousin sis
I have selected top 25 most easily re-callable moments, memories, events from Rajput Bhawan of the yore, before it fell apart and all the Mausis (my aunts - Mum's sisters) got married off. Most of these 25 memories belong to the period when Babu (my grandfather) was around - so the memories are from the period between 1974 (when I started getting my full awareness) and 1977 (when Babu died). In no particular order, these are:
1. Sitting on the high bed (massive spring mattress with layers of soft mattresses on top) sorting 5,10, 25, 50 paise coins on Babu's bed, along with my 5 elder cousins - sifting through the daily collection from the fares collected from the buses my grandad owned - and we getting paid a small commission for the counting ... 1st law of agency and commission learnt ;)
2. Going to the movies en masse squeezed in 1 or 2 cars - at Ray Talkies - cousins, outnumbered by Mausis (aunts) ... lesson learn .. Ambassadors can expand to fit as many people as you want.
3. Having to pay for going to the movie despite Babu giving money to Putul Mausi .. Putul Mausi led the collection, and took money even from a tiny 4/5 year old kid like me :( ..... lesson learnt ..... nothing comes for free and accounting or money management cant be left in the hands of elders ;) ... Generous grants from Babu + each one's contribution = ticket money + food money + lost money by Putul Mausi.
4. Squeezing into the car, going to Indian School of Mines Gate for Masala Dosas (Salty Crepes full with potatoes) .. lesson learnt ..Indians love potatoes.
5. Going to Rajendra Market in small groups .. personally avoiding all street food (while allother devoured it) but focussing instead it on "softees"(soft ice creams) ... lesson learnt ...I was finicky about food hygiene from early and frozen food seemed a safer way to go.
6. Going to Rajendra Market when the lights were out at Rajput Bhawan upon special private invitation extended in the darkness, from Raja Bhaiya ... early lesson learnt ... nothing as wonderful as having a generous elder brother.
7. Going to Dhanbad Railway station with Babu to eat cake ... in reflection, it was hard tough bad cake but still so much fun ... lesson learnt: eating, even bad food with grandads, is too special and perhaps an incomparable experience.
8. Being able to do 2,3,4, 5, 6 and 7 above - often, spontaneously ... lesson learnt ... the car offers mobility and mobility is freedom and fun and leads to choices.
9. Playing cops and robber with Anju Bhaiya on the terrace with our latest toy guns ... Anju Bhaiya always getting his way and becoming the "Chor" (robber). I suspect it was because Amitabh Bachhan (Indian Screen God) would be a Chor in movies and Vinod Khanna (another amazing movie star but not a Screen God) would be the policeman in Indian movies .... lesson learnt ... toy guns are fun for 5 year olds especially blue ones that shoot yellow pellets or black ones that shot multi-coloured discs .... even if you know you are being fooled to play the less exciting role of a cop and have to do the chasing.
10. We performed a play, directed by Putul Mausi ... the cast had Anu didi (my eldest cousin sis) as an actress, Anjoo Bhaiya as a waiter, the rest of us as as side-kicks. I was the youngest and dressed as a villager .. we did a show with full gusto, for all the elders in the family, who laughed and thoroughly enjoyed the event .. lesson learnt ... everyone (actors, side-kicks, audience) loves a good show.
11. Anju Bhaiya decides to teach me (I was then 5.5 year old) Karate one late evening .... the initiation process required my hair and his hair to be chopped like that of Bruce Lee .. while we were undergoing the initiation process, Raja Bhaiya spied us out and squealed ... Anju Bhaiya and I panicked and we threw my cut hair pieces out the window .. we put on caps, went to a movie in the night, but didn't confess .. lots of fuss was created by everyone on the mysterious hair cutting ... we (Anju Bhaiya, I) didn't relent ... and we were forced into a council with Anu Didi applying some "magic" oil on finger nails ... leading to confessions by us ... lesson learnt ..... ghouls, mysteries, wizardry, magic oil are all part of the every day eastern living.
12. Learning western dancing steps from Putul Mausi ... Anju bhaiya, Anu didi, sometimes a reluctant Sonu di and me ... lesson learnt ... you can shake your booty and feel good, even if you dont know how to do it right.
13. The time that a golden globe with multi-coloured disco lights was installed in Tunnu Mama's suite ..... lesson learnt ... Abba and Boney M can get to anyone, anywhere.
14. Dancing to "Tequila" and Tina Charles... lesson learnt: some music pieces are timeless.
15. Creeping out of bed to play during "forced" afternoon siestas while elders slept ... learnt about myself ... I can never pretend to sleep and being in action, despite threats, is preferable than taking it lying down ;)
16. Playing "Ghar-Ghar" .. with makeshift homes made of sheets, pretending to sleep, get up, eat and go to work ... food was always tastier in the neighbouring Anu didi and Putul Mausi's camp (who knew to cook serious stuff) and we had to shamelessly drop in to their "home" for eating ... lessons learnt ..grass is greener on the other side of the fence, powerful (in this case elder) people always gang up to create monopolies, food is a big motivator and hunger overcomes shame.
17. Playing "school school" ..with Anu Didi as the teacher .. lesson learnt .... don't play with Didis (elder sisters) ..they will teach you class course, even in your vacation :).
18. Playing board games - Housie/Lotto, Monopoly and Career with Putul Mausi, Mum, Tunnu Mama, elder cousins of course, Pyaare Mama, Mahesh Mama (friend of Putul Mausi) ... and I loved "Career" the most ... realization: now I know why I think corporate career is a fun game.
19. Playing cricket with a hard ball on the ground floor and near the cow shed with all the Mamas and Bhaiyas .. and only doing the batting, and leaving when I was done ... it is good to be the youngest, sometimes.
20. Playing "bang bang" ... in the house with all younger Mausis, their friends, cousins ... the cheating, the noise was all OK but being the youngest, Sonu Didi and I were always made captains and hidden away in a cupboard or a secluded spot .. did I say in # 19, it was good to be the youngest , perhaps not :( .. Grrrrr.
21. The ride from the train station to Rajout Bhawan every time we went to Dhanbad .... short distances can seem like long journeys to kids who are excited.
22. The fear of "Runnu", the excitable dog versus the respect for "Llama", the kind gentle dog .. lesson .. names have direct impact on who we are, even on dogs.
23. Maa, my grand-mom .. with her uniqness & foibles ... the white sheets, the amazing laughter, the Bengali preferences in news, music & dishes, partiality she showed me, the Paan (stimulating, psychoactive preparation of betel leaf combined with areca nut and/or cured tobacco) and the myriad strict rules she laid out .... lesson: you can take a Bengali out of Bengal but you cannot take the "Bengaliness" out even 30 years after being married to a happy, easy going person from UP, living in Bihar/Jharkhand.
24. The long line of cars, trucks and the buses my grandparents owned that lined up the driveway ... lesson learnt .. wealth can be fleeting.
25. All the noise and "hungaama" (drama) associated with people who were an extension of the Rajput Bhawan family - Tunnu Mama's friends, the many "Mausis "(from Nepal, Meerut) & Mamas who were buddies of Putul Mausi and made things at RB even more lively and the various people who lived & worked at RB to make it RB (Ram Lakhan, the long lasting driver, Pathakjee, the collector of "interesting" Hindi novels, the bus conductors who I recognized even after the buses were gone, Shashti, our big Bengali chef and the list goes on) ...lesson learnt ... a patriarch (like Babu) can be at the core of a solar system but when he goes, the planets, their satellites and asteroids disperse randomly...hopefully to form equally exciting solar systems of their own.
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