Blog Post-4

18/01/2010

“Some Uncle”
It was heart-breaking start today as I was asked to get up 7:00am in the morning.
Mom yelled my name in short form (Umi) as she normally does.
Umi I guess wasn’t quite enough to wake me up and thus she made that Umiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…….. The frequency of her voice is very much amplified. All Thanks to her college students.
I gained some sort of consciousness and made her stop by giving a feeble response saying ‘hmmmm’ with my brain still fogged with sleep. She asked me to go to railway station as ‘some uncle’ of mine was coming to Bhopal and the arrival time of train was 7:30am.
Now who cares for who or which uncle is coming when he is responsible for spoiling your wonderful sleep. I don’t enjoy getting up early in vacations and especially when I sleep late the night before. She informed me that ‘some uncle’ will be guest for today.
“Atithi Devo Bhavah” she said and nudged on my head as I was getting a bit restless. She always likes to tease me in such situations.
Mom always says to drink water after getting up. But drinking water so early in morning is no less than drinking a bitter melon juice in winters. I normally avoid it unless forced by mom. I reluctantly moved to brush the teeth then knowing that I have to put that ghostlike cold water in maw later for washing. But no doubt that it feels good after brushing.
I then had a taste of boiling milk which is no less than ‘Amrit’ in such cold. I then asked dad to give a check whether the train is late. It is always good to ask such questions in our country and that too when it is hazy in the morning.
To my surprise the train was on time. This news broke my heart second time. My face tried to give the mixed expression to reflect my surprisal as well as heart-breaking. I left home covering myself from top to bottom and reached railway station driving slowly as the environment was foggy. Not to much surprise this time as the station was deserted with the pin drop silence that you don’t see often.
The train arrived at 7:40. I suppose the driver never gave the engineering exams and thus didn’t understand the value of ten minutes. Anyways I couldn’t help the cause. When that ‘some uncle’ touched the platform I realized mom was talking about my ‘Mausaji’.
With the swarthy skin of his face and his grin, he was easily perceivable through the mist. I did manage to give a smile to reflect the happiness of him coming to Bhopal.
I’m considered as a good and well-mannered boy by every relative of mine and I had to act like the same in front of him too. So I bent down to touch his feet and asked to take the bag to lower the burden of his shoulders to which he blissfully said YES.