Ode to my Young Master!

Recollection of the past is like the sudden release of water from the sluice gates. Memories flood the very senses and you drown in them.

Madan was my Guru. Whatever I have learnt very early in life, it is courtesy, him.

If I didn't want to take a step more than what I had already walked, I learnt to sit down in the middle of the road and refuse to budge.

If I wanted my favourite 'ganna ras' I learnt how to stop and turn to look at my parents with pleading eyes.

If I didn't want to eat a morsel more I learnt how to imitate a barf!

He even taught me how to make more of less. The orange squash episode is a perfect example. (I have often wondered why it used to be called 'Squash'). Let me explain further…………….

Orange Juice concentrated orange juice that you had to add water to and a bit of sugar to wipe out the sourness-tanginess. Well, a typical hot day would qualify for a glass of juice. 'Ollange juice' was my favourite then! (Today I don't touch it with a barge pole!) Perima would make two glasses of the juice filled with water from the matka .(a fridge came into the scene much, much later in my life). It has always been a habit of mine ever since childhood that whatever edible was given would be bitten and chewed upon immediately. So too anything liquid .it would be gulped down even as I got breathless trying to drink it in one go!

Smarto that he was he would pretend to drink his .while I was already through! Then, the master taunt that he was, he would sip his glass ever so slowly, that I would gun for his throat! Throwing tantrums did not fetch me another glass. Scowling too, was of little help. I had to learn it the hard way.

The next occasion saw me slightly smarter than before. If he could pretend…so could I! But now he had another ACE up his sleeve! At 4 there is only so much of acumen that one can possess. I guess I lost out on my share some where down the line!

He was all sweetness and gave me a brilliant idea. How to double up what I have in my glass without having to ask for more. (Oliver Twist???) He lead me to the nearest wash basin. Placed the stop-cork in it. Half filled the basin with water. Then came the interesting part. "Pour your juice into it and see how much more you will have to drink!"

Gluttonous me over took the innocent me. A full glass of real good Ollange juice got into the wash basin. "Why don't you add the 'sing-daana' (peanuts)too?? They will taste so good na!"

Stupid me nodding my head dropped the little 'munfali' that I had in my chubby hands.

The nett result was a wash basin half filled with a pale orange coloured liquid with some peanuts resting at the bottom below while the skins floated all round the basin.

'M' then performed the witch-doctor dance. He rolled on the floor clutching his stomach, tears rolling down his cheeks even as he desperately tried to contain himself from laughing himself to death.

The fact that he tried to have me out of his life was evident when he told me that I would be able to see better if I put my head through the window bars of the traveling fast train.

Yep! You guessed it! Got my head stuck between the two bars the BIGHEAD that I was!!!! The train was pulling into the destination of our choice and here I was wailing my lungs out unable to retrieve my head.

M was even kind enough to give suggestions:

"Why can't you cut her ears off?? Big ears! That's why she is stuck!"

OR

"Why don't we just leave her behind? Somebody else can adopt her if they manage to get her head out of the bar!"

Fear turned to Murderous intentions and I really think my only desire of clawing his face out must have helped me get my head out and keep me alive!!

Some how still alive and clicking - Dolz