Block G 63

G 63 Block

The times of innocence and fun.

The singlemost traumatic event I can remember when we lived at Block G63 was Sarala Athai's wedding.

To understand why it was traumatic, I need to give you a sneak overview into who Sarala Athai is. Sarala Athai was the last of my dad's sisters, who was unmarried at that time and living with us. We had several grooms come to "see her" and several dejections for her because of her birthstart "Moolam". If you are a TamBram and grew up in a TamBram household like mine, you will understand what I mean.

But in spite of all these setbacks (she was 22 when I was born and 28 by the time she got married), she filled her days and those around her with laughter and joy. She never really let her dejection show - she was always bubbly, had so many good friends like Parveen's mom, Noorjahan aunty, Suseela Aunty, Sarala aunty(her namesake), Jayanthy Aunty and spent quiet some time with all of them. You can imagine, first me and then Vijay were always accompanying her, door to door in that block, enjoying being with her and enjoying how well loved she was.

Our neighbors across the door were Parveen's mom(I never really knew her real name), Khasim uncle, Parveen, Shereen, Munnawar, Anwar, Ansar, Apsar and Munni. They shared their 600 odd sq ft space amongst all these people and had even "sublet" their quarters to another family - Noorjahan aunty, Kamal uncle, Saleem, Rahmath and Banu for a while. I loved to go over to their house, learn from Parveen and Shereen akka and play with Munni and just smell the aromas of a muslim household. They were visited always by Parveen's aunt, Grover aunty and I used to also play with their son Arif. Sarala Athai and generally the H.V.F. Estate atmosphere knew no difference based on caste, creed, religion or other criteria. We lived like one big family in a block. My grandma used to send "bathchanam(savories)" over to their house for every major festival.

Right down from us lived Shantha aunty, Pillai uncle and Sunil. Shantha aunty was also athai's close friend. Diagonally down were Suseela aunty and her family of 3 girls - Sumathi, Banu and Manju. Then next to them was Jayanthy aunty(she had a son Praveen and daughter(her name eludes me right now, we used to call her "Moli")) who both went on to be medicos and next to her was Sarala aunty who had 3 grown sons.

They did crafts together (Sarala Athai is very artistic - there is nothing that is impossible for her), exchanged recipes, played "soli" or "dhayam" or just enjoyed being around each other. I can still remember those times and the fun I saw happen. We were not allowed to eat in anybody's house (TamBram reference again). Sarala athai was so slight in enforcing this rule on us. If one of the auntys' offer us something to eat, she would tell us "By all means, go ahead and eat it" while all the time her eyes would warn us "kabardhaar". We would very politely say "No Aunty, we just ate" or "we are not hungry" or something like that. I remember this even stretched after she got married and went to Delhi and would come home for visits and we would go visiting her friends.

Well, let's come to the traumatic event. My Babu Athimber came to "see Sarala Athai". Everything else worked out and they were married. Moment of joy right - right!!! I used to not even talk to him initially because he took her away from me, all the way to New Delhi!!! I cried everytime she came to visit and went back. She kind of still expects me to do that, even though I am 40 :-)))

I know childhood is precious and those moments are lovely to recall for everybody - but when I think back, I am suprised I can remember all this vividly given my age at that time - 0 to 6. Then we moved to the G40 block and we will take our journey from there next time.