When Tiks's folks came over! :)

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It was just one of my usual, lazy evenings sipping a cup of cappuccino with a friend at the Barista at Khan Market, the one where its cloyingly cosy yet affords a breath of fresh air with a couple of chairs out on the balcony. I was just contemplating what to have for dinner, maybe a quick affordable bite at Mc'Dy's or let’s see, one of those rolls at Khan Chacha's when I noticed two missed calls on my phone. It was Tiks, my flat mate, my former hostel mate, and more than anything else, my critique and shopping partner! Her parents and kid brother were coming in for the night! 'O my God, is the house in a state fit to be seen was my first thought!

I went over as hastily as I could to our modest two room sarkari flat and was met by the most appetizing flavour ever! Hot dinner being cooked by Aunty, yellow dal in true assamese style with just a spattering of ‘paas-phuron’, mixed vegetables, fried onions n tomatoes and eggs, and lip-smacking 'bogori asar' (berry pickle)! Aunty looked at me and smiled, 'Go and change quickly, dinner is almost ready'...i did not need that line; I was ready to tuck in right at that moment if only she would let me! Me and Tiks gorged ourselves on 'maa ke haath ka khaana' and later shamelessly admired our swollen tummies! Size zero was passe! ;) 

Uncle was updating me with how expensive the humble karela was in Delhi, 60 rupees a kilo, can you imagine that? Or for that instance, lemons, the staple add on to every assamese meal was 5 rupees a piece! How do people manage to live here! I did not want to clarify that 'cooking veggies was not really a priority for us' and we could get by very well with scraps here and there, we were pretty uncomplaining people if you consider! Raja meanwhile was busy watching a movie called 'Ninja Assassination', a film we had no clue even existed on Tiks's laptop! He also advised me to watch 'The Fast and the Furious' part two not part four; the action in the latest one was pretty lame. My knowledge on Harry Potter too was suitably enhanced when I assumed 'The Deathly Hallows' was the end of J.K Rowling forever, but no! ‘There’s a second part coming, you didn't know that’ was his scornful reply! We were also supposed to call it an early night because the family was heading to Haridwar for a religious dip and Tiks's was going explicitly to click more pictures that could be uploaded on FB asap! By 5am, everyone was up and debating who takes the longest time to get ready...Aunty wins that hands down...I doubt whether anyone other than my own Amma could beat her!I had to  warm her tea twice before she packed in all her mekhela-sadors, blouses even a bottle of sauf I managed to keep her from taking! I tasted the sauf, delicately browned with little dry coconut pieces thrown in, used to traditionally welcome every guest back home with additions like pieces of paan and betel-nut. By 7am, everyone was miraculously ready to go, and I was left wishing I could go too inspite of Tiks's cryptic warning 'Bore khaabi'! (You will get bored')....I guess it was a desire to re-connect with all those familiar pointers that make any place feel like home...But sigh...evil things like chapter-writing awaits me :(

As they all waved goodbye and as I saw the white Indica vanishing from sight, I went inside and was greeted by the strong sweet smell of burning incense...I remembered the Eid mornings when it filled up the whole house, and an intense longing to go home overpowered me...

St Mary’s N.Lakhimpur, My first film and much more!

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Change….that was the most hated word of my childhood. I craved stability…a place where I could take root…grow wings but inevitably have a place to come back to…but the word ‘transfer’ threatened it all! Abba's being in the judiciary was a curse me and my three brothers had to constantly negotiate most of our lives. And what was more horrific to me was to be uprooted from an upmarket, polished all girls school to a co-ed one, with the dreaded word ‘boys’! St Mary’s North Lakhimpur, where all the rules were written to be broken. Where you had periodic strikes by students and boycotts… India indeed was independent but the students considered themselves self styled rebels, Guevera must have a Lakhimpur connection!

When all I wanted to be was invisible, being the new girl in school put me under intense scrutiny. My unusually long hair was commented on, home-made remedies for blackheads offered, hindi film music cassettes and slam books exchanged, Nancy Drew's  lent, almost as if I had always been a part of std Viii B! What was much more interesting was all the ‘gyan’ I was offered, Assamese slang worth its salt, how to hide your boyfriend’s gifts if you had one, but the one I particularly mastered was being a postman for my friend’s crushes! It felt good to be accepted and loved though my prudish ways were often looked down on.

Till then, the holy doors of the cinema halls were forbidden to me, but courtesy my gang, be it the then scandalous ‘Titanic’, or the Rahul-Anjali love saga ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hain’, we saw it all and our parents never had an inkling to this day! Tution classes are seriously the best excuses in the world!

The first film however that I saw in a theatre and that remains a favourite to this day is Santosh Sivan’s ‘Halo’ in the good old days when he was not star struck enough to attempt a disastrous 'Ashoka'! We were taken to this one from school, and the mood was upbeat though the more knowledgeable ones like my friend Sabera were disgusted that at Std viiith, we were supposed to watch a kid’s movie!

We were all taken to the illustrious Surjya Hall with its betel-nut stained exteriors and cosy dark interiors. The huge screen made my eyes sparkle and to this day, the magic of a good film at a theater never fails to lift me up.

It was a simple tale- Sasha, a little girl in search of her lost pup, one she believed she needed the most but one she eventually gave up for another little boy, for well..he needed him more.A subtle moment of compassion and giving that took your heart away. Santosh Sivan, the ace cinematographer that he is regaled us with some beautiful shots of a wet, sea-drenched Bombay, long before ‘Dhobi Ghat’ happened. The riots of Bombay, the friendlessness of a small, motherless girl, the amusingly naïve love of Lata and Goldie and most of all Sasha’s answer when asked what is that she seeks the most, she searchingly replies, ‘happiness’…evevry moment is as fresh as that day many years back. It is funny how things come back to you...And how wrapped up you actually are to moments that make up your life...I am glad I can manage a smile then…quietly to myself…
P.S I had never believed in destiny until the day I met you…I cried all the way from Dibrugarh to North Lakhimpur, believing it was the end of the world for me..in fact, it was a new beginning..It meant getting to know you, the cute guy in my class with large specs, a pet of my maths teacher who still haunts me in my nightmares! Who knew we would become such good friends and discover worlds together..and many years later…make another new journey…’Halo’ was then our first movie together and it makes it all the more special…Cheers to many more years of movie viewing and much more!