BIRTHDAYS ARE SPECIAL DAYS.

WHEN I TURNED TWO.

It was a hot summer's day when I arrived on terra firma. It was a Thursday, and as per an old children's poem, "Thursday's child has far to go."

In the morning as the clock struck six,  this dark, scrawny screaming infant arrived at Dr. Sita Sen's Nursing Home in Daryaganj, Delhi. My father was delighted to see his first born, and this England returned Engineer who had learnt all about equality, justice, and being fair(not the colour fair) was bewildered when the friends and other relatives around said,"Never mind, Lakshmi has arrived", some others said, "It's alright, you will surely be blessed with a son next time." A lot of commiseratory messages were given, but the one word of "Congratulations" was not forthcoming.

This little girl was named Vidya by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, my grandfather's very close friend, but my mother decided to call me Varsha.

It was all about education in my house and so I went to the best convent schools close to whichever place my father was posted to. He was an Engineer and in  the developing phase of a new Republic, he was busy building the infrastructure for power and so we were at Hirakud Dam site, Nagarjunasagar dam site,  then Bhurkunda, Barkakana Coal mine areas in Bihar, Bailadila Iron ore project in MP, Panna Diamond Mines in MP, Kiriburu in Orissa. I went to study at Cuttack, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ranchi and Hazaribagh.

Having grown up in so many different states of the country, I learnt a lot about the food, culture, clothes, style of wearing a saree and ethnicity of various tribals. My education was not only in school but also in the lap of cultural luxury. We lived in absolutely primitive places where fruits, vegetables, shops were scarce, urban life and its styles were missing. I learnt about the Santhals, The Lambadis, the Bhils, Gonds and other Bastar tribals and could understand what diversity was all about. I have to thank my parents for instilling curiosity in my mind and trying their best to teach me everything that they could see and understand. I imbibed a sense of respect for everyone. The fabric of my life is really very rich as what I saw and learnt has remained with me till date. 

I have seen and experienced a Haat at Bailadila. Barter  system was still in use there. I am talking of the year 1966. The tribals knew no clothes, they would cover themselves with lots of necklaces made of beads. At the Haat the tribals brought salt, balls of jaggery covered with red ants, some grain, roots, and potatoes. Country fowl in their beautiful colourful plumes were also bartered. In every haat there has to be some entertainment. What I saw here was  fowl fighting. Little blades were tied on a leg of the fowl and they were let loose to fight against each other. It was quite a ferocious fight and went on till one died. It was a gory sight and I will never forget that scene.

Bastar area was full of beautiful and undiscovered places. Bacheli, Kirindul, Gidham, Dandakaranya were all associated with the Ramayana. The names themselves were fascinating. The closest town to Bailadila where we lived was Jagdalpur. There was a picture hall there, where they waited for us to arrive to start the movie. "Om Jai Jagdish hare" was played at the beginning of a movie.  Much water has flown down all the rivers of the world since then, so suffice to say that all these places are now much-much changed and the tribal culture has now got confined to anthropological museums.

So this dark scrawny girl did well in school and always topped in her class. My father's motto for me had always been,"Nothing less than first class first". It was drilled into my head and without it damaging my persona, I actually succeeded and always came upto my father's expectation.

As a student I hated History as I could never learn dates by heart.  Without dates History often becomes meaningless academically. Later in life I found that History is my most favourite subject and I can go on reading historical stories without a stop. I still cannot remember dates but that does not matter now. 

Life has been interesting, I got married at a fairly young age as I wanted to marry someone I liked. After my children were born, my restless spirit wanted to work and so I got selected as a Probationary Officer of a Bank. To awaken me from euphoria I was given a taste of discrimination. At the Interview I was asked "How will you manage the job with children?" I was also asked how I would manage to stay in different places where I was posted if my husband was not around? In those days no one thought of being politically correct so as to avoid discrimination and to give equal opportunity. I am quite sure no male candidate with a family would have ever been asked this question. Well, life was tough for a woman then, perhaps it is tough even now. 

The job was good, I put in thirty years of service and then took early retirement so that I could do something with my own life while I still could.

Its been good so far, I travelled to my heart's delight. All those wonderful places of Europe, America that I would longingly look at in pictures were within my reach. It does help to have children settled in the UK and USA. 

 As my birthday approaches soon, I sit back and remember some landmark birthdays of mine. Landmark as in memorable ones which left a deep impression on me. The first birthday I remember was my 7th birthday.  I was a boarder at St. Anne’s High School, Secunderabad and my father was posted at Nagarjunasagar which was 90 kms away. My parents arrived at the Boarding house to celebrate my birthday. Mrs. Miller the wife of an American Expert posted at Nagarjunasagar had baked a beautiful cake for me with pink icing decorated with pretty little white pearls. 

SEVEN

After the little party with my friends in the boarding,  I was taken out to a small little shopping arcade near the Green’s Restaurant. There was a little  book shop in the arcade and I was asked to go and pick any book that I wanted as my birthday present. I took my own sweet time and picked up, "My First book of Elves and Fairies". It was hard bound and had colourful pictures. I loved that treasure and still cherish those moments. It will interest you to know that my father loved buying books, but reading them-particularly fiction was a very difficult task for him. "And quiet flows the Don" was a book which he tried hard to read every night before sleeping. Beside his bed there would be a side table on which there was a table lamp, his book and spects. Those objects would remain as it is, till the morning. He never got around to reading it and that had become a sing song recitation to tease him for many years. 

TWNETYONE

Another memorable birthday was when I turned 21. By now I was married and was living in Bangalore. My husband Triloki look me out for dinner, perhaps to Holiday Inn. My dad wrote a very beautiful letter to me. It was hand written. While in School and later College my grudge had always been that my dad would dictate a letter to me which would be typed out by his secretary, and then he would sign it and have it posted to me. Therefore this  hand written letter became a very important memento for me. 

My fiftieth birthday was memorable as it is quite mandatory, after all I was completing half a century on earth. This birthday was however celebrated by me alone while I was posted at Dehradun. My children were abroad and Triloki too happened to be in London on that date.  I ordered a cake, some samosas and some mithai and had a small party in my department. I must have been quite happy as I do not remember being sad or lonely or alone. I only have good memories of that birthday. 

MY GRANDCHILDREN ON MY 60TH.

On my 60th Birthday my children decided to celebrate it together. My mother and I flew to London, where Chaitali, my daughter and her family joined us and all of us flew to Boston where Anurag my son and daughter in law Jharna live. All of us went to the beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. Anurag had booked a lovely cottage for all of us beside the lake. We spent  a lovely day at the beach enjoying ourselves. It was wonderful as we were all together. 

Now the birthday that is approaching is a beautiful number. The number is "Ulta pulta ek samaan". Go ahead and guess what it is. Being born on Thursday, I know I have far to go(literally) on all my wandering ways, seeing the world, enjoying places, meeting people and learning all about different  cultures.

The gallivanting dark lady moves on looking for new places and new roads to travel on. 

MUMMY- KAMAL UKE, ME, DADDY- N G UKE.

Thank you, thank you everyone in advance and in anticipation of all those birthday greetings that are coming my way. I know you are wishing me, I can feel it in my bones.