TWISTS AND TURNS

Some time ago, there was a small family near our house. It was a happy home, with three children- Akshay, the elder was a boy of ten years. He lived with his twin sisters- Anna and Angela. Their grandfather was a business man and their father a Doctor. Mother being a housewife, they enjoyed lot of pampering and many of my friends, including myself were jealous of this. Many a times I have longed that my Mamma would also quit her job one day and become a house wife, to take care of me always.…

Their house was very beautiful with landscaped garden. There was a pond with Lotus and Lily plants; another with ducks swimming all along; an aquarium with lot of gold fishes, angels, red zebras…. They had cages for love birds and rabbits, one above the other like a double decker bus and a bee hive. Akshay had built small kennel for his cute little puppies and cozy beds for his small pussy cats, in which they cuddled so attractively. White pigeons flew all along, with droppings here and there. Daily evening they had a wonderful time in their garden. I was always welcome to join them which I cherished very much. Nitin, another of my neighbour would hurt the poor animals and destroy plants or pluck flowers, so he was never let in by their watchman.

They also had a beautiful play area on one side of their house, with a small par lour. They kept all their story books, colours and crayons, drawing boards and building blocks in there. Even on hot sunny days, it was so cool to sit on the granite top benches and the immovable concrete table was the most attractive. Around the parlors were swing, slide and see saw. Akshay had his tuitions in there, much to the envy of his own sisters!!

There was beautiful grotto with Mother Mary and lot of flowers on the corner of the garden. There was a small but beautiful fountain in front of the grotto. This was something that attracted me the most.

The family prayer room was also a spacious one, where they all gathered every morning and evening and prayed together, singing loudly and reading psalms from the Holy Bible.

One day, I was enjoying playing with Anna, when suddenly we noted her mother Ameya walking out of the gate. They had three cars, a red Toyota Qualis, for the family, driven by Sajanbhaiyya, a Blue Chevrolet for their grandfather, who drove it himself and a White Swift a recent purchase by their father. Ameya and kids always used the Toyota to go to and return from school, market or shopping. On Sundays, they would all visit the church, with their father in the driving seat…

But, they had never seen their Mamma going walking, that too all alone, without uttering a word to any of them. The children were quite astonished…They ran to their Grandma, who was standing right at the door, silently, herself dumb-struck in awe… She remained silent to all their hot queries and later withdrew to monitor routine tasks…Children sat on the steps…

In a short time, nature too transformed. It started to drizzle and the children rushed out. They used to play in the rain at this time and enjoyed taking a bath outdoors after getting thoroughly drenched…Mamma was so wonderful to let them enjoy all their mischievous prangs. She would compel them to dettol and slippers and so many paraphernalia, in spite of which the kids really enjoyed getting wet.

Mamma would narrate how she herself as a kid used to walk a few miles early in the morning to have a bath in the river with all elders in a row…. How as she grew up, she used to have her bath before the sun rose, in the domestic pond in their ancestral home and all the funny incidents…

Even now as we go down for vacations, the very sight of these places brings out vivid colourful imaginary pictures of our Mamma there as a kid!!!! The domestic pond now has so many carps under the fisheries project!!! However, the river and the temple tank still have lots of children diving in splashing water all around…

In fact, last time we successfully recorded a video on all this including the way we play to get drenched in the rains, the beautiful ripples as water falls on the lotus leaves, the change of water to muddy and so called dirty form….how our friends envied us!!!!!!!

Their memories flew through all these and they were enthralled, until finally they heard their Grandma shouting at them.

“Hey Akshay, what is it that you are up to??? Its raining so heavily and you are purposefully getting wet? Didn’t you see Aami going out??? (Aami, that’s how Grandma calls Mamma. Generally, they move along well, but what happened today, the thunder again struck Akshay all on a sudden…)

He slowly went to the back door, requested Elsa their maid for some towels and dettol, and called his sisters to move towards the tap used for washing in the rear end of the big garden. Elsa too came down and helped the children to wash and dress and gave them milk and snacks.

Akshay was a bit afraid of his Grandma and so ate quietly. But the younger ones couldn’t even think about that!!! They have never had their food by themselves. They started crying in unison. Elsa tried her best to persuade them; but in vain. Soon, Grandma came in and consoled the siblings. “Mamma has gone home and will take sometime to return, behave yourselves until then. Don’t irritate Grandpa as he comes in or it would be a real chaos;” she warned. “ I have to take care of lot of things and its going to be prayer time. So have your food and go upstairs.” She continued and moved off.

Akshay finished his food and went over to their side. “Annamole”, he called passionately, “Angelkutty”, he called the other; both clinged to him tightly. “You should obey whatever Grandma tells you, hasn’t Mamma told us so, always? If we disobey elders, Mamma would scold us when she comes back. Let us now finish our snacks and go to do our homework. Achayan shall help you. I shall also get chocolates for you as Pappa comes down…” The sorrow slowly subsided. Children went upstairs in to their study. Though they really missed their Mamma’s guidance, they continued with their work…

The children saw their Grandpa coming in followed by their priest and soon they went off together. They saw their father coming in and they ran to him. He silently hugged them, which was quite unlike his usual self. He accompanied his children and gave them their supper, again quite unlike of him, then he took them up into the study and Oh! He didn’t even know which books they had to study then!!! He sighed heavily.

Akshay intervened at the right moment. “Papa, where has Mamma gone? What happened? She didn’t tell us anything…”he narrated patiently and in a sober manner. “Do you know where she is now? Can we go and bring her back? We truly missed her since quite long…..” At this, Anna and Angela again started weeping and now Akshay also lost his control. Dr. Jose couldn’t bear that. He again held them tightly and walked down. He called loudly for Sajanbhaiyya and they all climbed in…

(I stay very close by; so, I had an eye out of curiosity and my annoyance aggravated. I prayed sincerely and silently…)

As they turned the corner, Grandpa drove in… Papa applied a sudden brake and Oh! Good Gracious, Mamma jumped out and so did we!!!

Thank God….Life is so beautiful…