These are what I think must have happened before my memories took over!
The house in Keonjhar was newly built with two large rooms on the ground floor and two on the first floor with good size verandas for each room on the ground floor and balcony’s on the first floor. There were lean-tos on both sides for garage, staircase, storerooms kitchen dining etc. The walls were of burnt brick with lime and mortar. The first floor was made with wooden beams and rafters with tiles on them. The roof was sloped with tiles and with a parapet. There was a wooden, ladder like stair to go up.
There was a huge amount of land around the house. About five acres and plantains, sajana, mango, pears, guavas and many other trees were planted everywhere. In the backyard which used to be polished with a mixture of cow dung and water was the grain shed, built on stilts to protect it from moisture and rats! But the whole area was filled with rats and rat holes! Beyond this, were the cowsheds, which presumably housed the cows that provided milk for the house.
The pond was at the back of the main house- out of the walled enclosure. It was muddy but clean, with all sorts of fish like rohi, bhakuda and small prawns. The well- the main water source for the house was filled with water full of calcium. The servant quarters were built on the periphery of the huge plot and towards the back. On the south west corner of the plot, now known as College Square, lay the graves of my grandfather, grandmother and their guru. My grandparents had, after a long life of “Grihatsa” become ascetics. It was the custom that when you become a sanyasi you are to change your name with a surname like Saraswati, Bharati etc, and they had to be buried and not cremated.
It is said that as a child I spoke very late but when I spoke it was full sentences and not ma, ba or any childish prattle. I believe that I started walking without going through the period of crawling but I remember nothing about learning how to walk and swim, which I must have done by 2 years of age. I think I loved taking shortcuts even then.
very well described - vivid indeed. I never knew about the practice of sanyasis being buried and not cremated - why would that be?
ReplyDeleteBut about your shortcuts - I think i have heard that before :) (for example on how you drove your father's jeep without learning how to ride a bicycle !!) :)