My Favorites

I was passing by the Orchid road on a Sunday evening, walking along with my husband. Amidst the crowd, I saw a glowing face with a microphone in hand. She stopped me and asked, “Name two of your favorite edibles”. Spontaneously came over COKE n ICE CREAM. The team down there was a bit shocked. But true was my reply… Smiling at my answer, she asked, “Do you live just for them?” I replied “No”. I toiled just for them, may be not now, but from the age of 6. She was astonished, I said it was a fact and went on to explain…

All I heard from my childhood was that, you are the eldest in the family so we saw a nice boy for you and you need to get married. And then, few years later, your sister gave birth to two kids at your age, this match is the most favorable one, enough with your studies get married. Those were the state of lives which my cousins and sisters went thru. My memories haunt me with the itch of the male domination in the family and the lack of basic recognition not being given to a girl’s thoughts and feelings. She has no idea what so ever to think about her life, just do whatever the elders say. She cannot even wear a dress she likes. So irritating and disturbing was my mind whenever I saw such a kind of incident at home.

The only way I could avoid all that nonsense was to stay away from home; that is by going to school, study or play, but not stay at home till I get tired and feel sleepy. So that, all I had to do was set myself for next days school and have a good dinner and sleep tight. My mother and grandmother used to make special dishes for me in particular, as I was the one who gets crazy over food in my house.. wah.. Those yummy dishes, I still cannot forget which ones filled my tummy in full….

Never was I treated like a girl at home, fortunate was I for their feeling is what I think at times, being the youngest of the family, in a big joint family, I was given a place of a guy more to a girl. Cycling, gardening were my best time passes then, which made my weekends busier than my school days. Helping out all my grannies, aunts and cousins in bringing the tiny bits and buts for the week was one of my other major tasks. But the secret was, I was crazy for a pleasant ride on my cycle and in turn, earn my favorite COKE for the task accomplished.

Worst thing I hated was to sleep during the daytime, which was the most accepted feature on a weekend in all my cousins. Understanding that I would be pinging the resting relatives, my mom used to cleanly make me busy either by asking me to make the garden or the attic, which by the time I complete, I would see all the drowsy faces having their noon coffee, which I hate to drink even today. But great was the feeling, which I had when my dad paid me off in the evening with a liter of ICE CREAM for the hard day’s work. I used to go around my collars flying over that reward.

-Jaya Prada

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