| deep |
Posted
on 28-Jun-02 08:51 AM
Churos
Mandai was sitting on a wall adjacent to the Ganesthan. Slightly cool Aasoj breeze was wandering around. Ganesthan was lively with sanjh ko chahal pahal. “Paani ta khane khola ko paani ta khane…Fuskela toona chola ko fuskela toona…” Shivdai sang looking at a woman buying chamsur-paloongo or some sort of saag from a street vendor just outside the hakoo cha ko pasal. That woman was new in our tole. She was staying at Bisnu Baje’s house as a domestic help (kaam garne). The lady was in her early twenties then and hailed from somewhere in Purba Ek Number. Her village attire- colorful butte Fariya, chaubandi cholo, powalo ko mala, patooka…-used to draw a lot of attention in our old traditional but wannabe modern tole. She was Maili when her uncle brought her to Bisnu baje’s house but now she is Sita, courtesy of Bishnu Baje’s family who awarded her with a classic name.
Sita Maili turned around lo locate the source of that “Paani ta khane kholako….”. As soon as she turned around holding ek mutha saag in her hand, Shivdai quickly shifted his gidde najar from Sita maili to the gajur of ganesthan as if he was singing a bhajan praising lord ganapati. Few moments passed. Even though he was trying to see Sita maili from a corner of his left eye, Shivdai was not sure if her sight are still covering him. “Heri ra chhe, jumle?” Looking at a shitting parewa on the gajoor, he asked Kumar who was watching Sita maili with a smile. Someone had given this name Jumle to Kumar. He was known as Kumar only on his family circle. As soon as he walked out of that zinc door of his house, he was Jumle and just Jumle. “Chhaina dai”, jumle answered. With a smile Shivdai watched all of us standing/sitting close by him. He once again directed his eyes towards Sita maili.
Karnel –his real name “karna” was obsolete- also joined the group with his precise adjective for Sita maili, “Raand ta kya PWAT chha yaar”. Mandai was getting restless. He was addicted to cigarettes. He was getting sick for one. He fixed his eyes at Karnel asked, “churos chha”? he then quickly fine tuned his question to come to his aaukat and specified the cigarette brand, “Gainra churos”. It was Mandai’s habit to ask for cigarettes with almost anyone. People were sick and tired of him. His greeting line to any one used to be “churos chha?”. Mandai’s question irritated Karnel who was busy blessing his eyes and other senses with the sweet abstract beauty of Sita maili and said, “chhaina,.. hya…………Mandai….khali churotai matrai magi ra ni….yaso kahile kahi ta ek batta afai kine pani ta hunchha ni…”. Karnel gave a brief lecture to Mandai on why it’s not cool to ask for cigarettes all the time. Mandai was not interested in that lecture so he moved his aashe ankha to Shivdai. Shivdai that day seemed pretty generous. He took out a panch saye pacha-panna (triple five) pack and said with a smile, “la aja yo pan se pachpanna khayera gati par”. He gave Mandai that special cigaratte. Shivdai lit his own cigarette and offered his lighter to Mandai. Mandai like I said above was sitting on a compound wall “parkhal”. He caught the lighter and lit that triple 5 and sucked as much smoke as he could in his one sas (breath). The enjoyment was flowing out uncontrollably from his face. That probably was the first time ever Mandai enjoyed a triple 5. We all were casually looking at Mandai having good time. Shivdai too was focusing not at Sita Maili but at Mandai with a mysterious smile then. Mandai once again put his triple 5 in position between his black lips and sucked the smoke.
“Dyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmm” we all got scared. Shivdai was laughing. Mandai fell on the road from the parkhal he was on. “tunnnnnnnnnna” sound was still playing in our ears. Mandai’s triple 5 was nowhere to be seen.
Little did he, Mandai, know his first time ever triple 5 had a Maltabara in it, courtesy of Shivdai.
|
