Uncle Cho's Afternoon Nap - by Soma Sanyal

The summer sun blazed down in all its glory. It was the end of May, the begining of the summer vacation. The house was filled with the pungent aroma of mustard and hilsa mixed with the strong sweet smell of mangoes and jackfruit. Mornings were reserved for studies but the rest of the time the children were free to do whatever they wanted. Left to themselves, they would have liked to play outside the house all the time. But after lunch, granny shoo-ed them upstairs. "You can't go out in this heat," she said. Crestfallen, the children gathered around in one of the big cool bedrooms upstairs. They started to argue on what to play and a big fight ensued. Finally they all agreed to play circus; the big barred windows being ideal for the trapeze act. Just as they started discussing who would do the trapeze act, Uncle Cho entered the room.

"Hi kiddos," Uncle Cho greeted them with a big smile.

Immediately there was a chorus of protests. "You can't sleep here," Mitli said, "we are playing."

"Hey, I won't be disturbing you..."

"No, but you snore and occupy half the bed."

"I can tell you a nice story......"

This time the children dithered; it was true Uncle Cho could tell wonderful stories but they wondered whether it would be worth the risk. Uncle Cho had a reputation for falling asleep and once asleep he was really difficult to move. However the story part was too enticing and finally won them over.

Uncle Cho had already anticipated this and now reclined happily on the bed with all the children gathered around him.

"So what kind of story do you want?"

"A princess story,"

"no a tiger story,"

"no, no I want to listen to a ghost story,'' a cacophony of voices shouted together.

"Okay, okay.." said Uncle Cho, "I will decide on the story."

So the story began. The room was partially dark, as the big windows were closed and the only other sound was that of the overhead fan droning on. It was about a king and queen and their lovely daughter. As it progressed the listeners were lulled into a peaceful sense of contentment. Suddenly,they realised that the story had stopped and instead what they heard were gentle snores. "Uncle, uncle," they started pounding him and shoving him. At last, after a determined ten minutes effort on the children's part, Uncle Cho opened his eyes. He apologized and continued with the story. " So the fox said to the hen....."

"But Uncle you were telling us a story about the princess, where did the fox and hen come from...."

"O was I ? I am sorry I got confused, now that I have forgotten what story I was telling you, I will tell you a new one about a tiger." Well, this story hardly lasted for five minutes before it also tapered of into gentle snores.

The children were no longer interested in waking him up again so they left him sleeping peacefully and turned back to their game. Everyone wanted to be either a trapeze artist or a cyclist. It would never do to have a circus team of only trapeze artists and cyclists; they needed lion trainers, jugglers and of course a Joker! A circus without a joker was absurd. But though all of them were ready to be a lion trainer, nobody wanted to be the joker. How can you have a circus without a joker ? This just wasn't possible and they all started quarrelling again.

The now loud snores of Uncle Cho punctuated their discussions and they hit upon the grand idea of making Uncle Cho the joker. Why not,they reasoned, after all they could pretend the joker was not well and was therefore lying down on the stage. (The large bed happened to be their stage.)


"I will get mother's make-up box and we can paint his face" said Tikly. So they got to work. Soon Uncle Cho had a nice painted face.His cheeks and forehead were a stark white in contrast to his dark bushy moustache,(for Uncle Cho was proud of his moustache and took good care of it) his lips were blood red and his nose was a shocking pink. "He looks just like a circus joker now;" "yea it's a pity he is asleep otherwise he could have given some performances on stage" sighed Mitli.

Once the joker issue had been settled, everybody wanted to get on with their own performances. The lion tamer found an old leather belt which he proudly swung around while standing on the old wooden dressing table. The acrobats cartwheeled across the room and stood on their hands on the stage. Everybody was really enjoying the game when they heard granny calling from the dining hall, "Come an' have some mangos, children.'' As they all rushed downstairs, they noticed that the sun had mellowed down and they could now go outside to play. So sucking their mangos they ran out into the warm afternoon sun, to the playground behind their house while Uncle Cho went on sleeping peacefully upstairs.

Around five o'clock, while granny was cutting some betel nuts, she heard the creak of the front door. Looking up she saw Shankar and Ashish entering. Shankar and Ashish were Cho's friends. "Is Cho home ?"they asked politely, "we were supposed to meet him around 4-30 at the tea shop.." "Oh Cho !" granny sighed," he must have fallen asleep, you know his sleep! I will give him a call."

"Cho, Cho, wake up, Shankar and Ashish are here" she called loudly.

Cho's blissful sleep was interrupted when he heard granny calling. Jumping up, he looked at his watch. Goodness! five o'clock; he had overslept again. Pulling on a shirt he rushed downstairs. Seeing Shankar and Ashish, he started apologizing but stopped abruptly when he saw the look of bewilderment on their faces. Then they both exploded with laughter. "Whats the matter ? Why are you two laughing so much ?" Cho grumbled. Granny looked up from her work and exclaimed "My God, Cho what have you been doing !!". This time it was Cho who stared at all the others in bewilderment.

"I was sleeping." He said. "Well, go and look at yourself in the mirror."

Cho came down the stairs grinding his teeth, and muttering,"those vile children, I will teach them a lesson." By this time Shankar and Ashish had collapsed on the sofa, weak with laughter and granny thought it prudent to warn the children to keep out of Uncle Cho's sight for the time being.

Epilogue:

The word soon went round the neighbourhood; especially among Uncle Cho's friends, the narrative of Shankar and Ashish being especially colourful. This resulted in a moratorium on stories for the poor children. But after a fortnight Uncle Cho was persuaded by granny that the children were innocent, he forgave them and resumed his wonderful stories. Finally everything returned to normal, only Uncle Cho got into the habit of peering into a mirror before going downstairs after his afternoon naps.