A reunion
of siblings is an occasion when you recall childhood memories and entertain
yourselves. It rejuvenates your system. With my brother, two sisters and
families, we wangle at least two such reunions in a twelve-month period. The
last one was in Mumbai this month.
The
reason? Well, we don’t need any, still we cook up one (this time two) in order to
drop an email to our respective children abroad, to legitimize our adventures.
First. Shanta
has moved to her new redeveloped apartment complex after fours years of wait,
with happily 70% extra space at no cost. Second, Rasa Anna’s complex is all set
for redevelopment. And this will be the last Ayyappa Puja that his Society will
perform before the building is razed to ground for redevelopment.
Post dinner
chats are replete with anecdotes of the days or yore. Rasa recalled how our
grandfather directed him and two other boys to the neighbouring Nurani village
to be part of the advanced Vedic recital along with scholars. On reaching they
were told that not just the Japam, the dinner too following that was over. They
returned home disappointed. One of them suggested having snacks at Ashoka
Bhavan. They did. Each thought one of the other two had money, but none had. The
Manager surveyed them, did an Inky Pinky Ponky, and pointed at Rasa’s shirt to
be removed as security till the money was paid. Rasa returned home shirtless,
with no Salman Khan six-pack to boast of.
They collected money from friends next morning and retrieved the shirt.
Balu
(name changed), a family friend, narrated how his father on visits to Balu’s
house in Chembur, Bombay, would always be in a hurry to return to Delhi, a
one-room tenement, in preference to Balu’s independent villa. Years later when
Dad passed away in Balu’s home in Chembur, Balu chanced upon a paper written by
the astrologer which stated that the subject would meet his death in his son’s
house in Chembur, Mumbai. Yes, the place was specifically mentioned.
It was
12.40, and a day-long outstation trip to Pune awaited the next morning – Dehu
Gatha Mandir perpetuating the memory of Sant Tukaram, and Alandi, the resting
place of Sant Dnyaneshwar, two of the saints of the Bhakti movement in
Maharashtra.
There was
a long queue at Dehu Gatha Mandir. We learnt it was Ashada Ekadasi and hence is
always crowded. We were delighted to observe that the villagers from far and
near sang Abhanga with gay abandon as they waited in the queue - all of them blessed
with a mood-elevating voice. Although we didn’t know the lyrics per se, we couldn’t
help humming with them.
The crowd
at Alandi, Sant Dnyaneshwar’s resting place was unimaginable. “It would be a long
wait so let me go prepared,” I told the team and headed to the Pay and Use
nearby. When I returned I couldn’t see them. I rushed to join them in the
queue. Couldn’t spot them. “Too smart, have gone too far perhaps. Anyway,
better late than never,” I said and took my turn in the queue. I tried to
contact them all the time but there was no network.
Meanwhile,
they were patiently waiting near the van for my return so that all could join
the queue. But when they realized it would take three hours to get darshan they
decided to pray from outside and retreat.
When there
was no trace of me for some time, they converted themselves into a search team.
They sent the driver to the Pay & Use while others spread out in different
directions. Lalitha tried to locate my pair of chappals at all chappal stands
in the Mandir premises. She located mine and guessed, “the fellow after all has
come up to this, and probably is somewhere in the queue.” She even announced in
the public address system in Tamil, Hindi and English. No response. When the
wait became unbearable and the thinking began to take a different route, she
prayed for my safe deposit, and swore to recite the Sampoorna Narayaneeyam in
one go as gratitude.
I
returned via the exit gate after three hours for darshan only to see Lalitha in
tears, and the others charged with anxiety. It needed a lot of goading before the
lady of the house got back to normal.
And
today, on the auspicious Vaikunta Ekadasi, she fulfilled her promise - recited
Narayaneeyam in full.
V V
Sundaram
Maple
3195
29 Dec
2017
