Chapter 2 - Jalebis

 Eid was just around the corner the entire current of the village had changed , suddenly there were more bangle wallahas, mithai shops , and hawkers selling chunriyas of such bright colors and some were so light as if just a drop of red ink had gone in to the duppatta making it a light blush pink , and one that she had her heart was on as bright as Roohafzah red . Sheela , wanted the sheesha kinari chunnni with the tight fitting gharara for Eid Day , and she would wear the fake silver baliyan to match . She had her bangles lined up and when Ammaji was dressed , she was free for the day , to roam around , loiter the streets with her friends .ah , what bliss ! 

Arey Kalmuhi , kahan ho ? Ammaji was shouting , waking her out of her day dream and reverie of being lost .She knew something must have been misplaced or something was missing out of her precious cupboard. Aa gayi , ji , she ran to the room ,passing the Pir sahibs room and she saw that he was shouting at Chota Sahib . This was more interesting than going to Ammaji and listening to what she wanted. Why have you given the money without my knowledge ? They will never vote for us , if they can be bought with money they’re loyalty lies with money and they can just switch . How could you sink all the money from the sale of land to them? How did you not even ask me once? He roared , shouting , fuming and he had spittle coming out of his mouth , she knew better to loiter here . 

Ammaji , kya hua ? Where are my keys? I can’t find them , I need to take out my Jewelry and take out money for eidi . She started looking at the usual places where she hid them , under the mattress, behind the dressing table , behind the picture , but she could not find them . The keys weren’t anywhere , she was worried and she asked again Ammaji , did you give them to sahib ? Or did you keep them at a new place . She knew she must have hidden them at a new place so no one could take out he big bundle of money that had been given by bade sahib yesterday just to be sitributed for Eid. Ammaji in all her finery still dressed up as the matriarch of a the royal family , in her beautiful handspun light as air , a dull gold with a wire of pink and bootis all over , that she wore with a voluminous Farshi gharara , and her gold earrings with a huge necklace that had twinkiling rubies winking in the light ! Her kohl lined eyes , paan stained lips and her strategic juda that seemed to be half done half made . Her clothes were made by her Masterji who seemed to be surviving only for her and her clothes , it seemed he would not take the next breath . Masterji was from the Raj times and had made for the Gori mem’s , the fitting and the cloth , he would go into raptures talking about it . He was her absolute favorite and he would stitch her clothes with invisible stitching and the Kiran for Eid .

She wanted the keys to make bundles and put them into envelopes and just count them again . 

It also contained her favourite jewels , and the remnants of the Jewelry given to her by the OG , her husband who ruled everything before things changed with a sudden heart attack. Well that thought was for another time , but she needed to find the keys . Find the keys, and hurry up . Sheela started looking everywhere and she could not find it , she even went to the bathroom and thought of going to the kitchen and ask Chotu and other maids. But , no one dared do this , it was the impossible. She knew no one would dare do this as it was sacred , and everyone was afraid of the dark room where any culprit was taken to confess his or her crimes. A lot of people never lived upto own their crimes but she was scared now. A lot of times the keys were misplaced but were always found and now they weren’t anywhere and she had a sinking feeling that they would try to pin it on her . 

Venus is calling

 It’s tough being a woman , everyone wants us to have all these characteristics , rolled into one , imagine one hot body and the men have all these checklists for just one of us . We are currently in the 21st century , on the cusp of being obliterated just by a pandemic or by global warming which we still do not want to take seriously but we are still worried about whether the girl is fair or dark or is wheatish in colour . Men are more worried about getting married to virgins but still want to be in relationships to be cool . So the ones you marry are from Mars or the ones you are dating are from mars ? Venus has such a problem.

I have come to know over a period of time , when they meet they are worried more about whether you drink , the right answer being yes . They also ask questions like do you speak Punjabi ( for NRI girls ) , will you turn into a non vegetarian after marriage ?

Do you wear make up ,can you do housework ? You will have to wear clothes which Mama makes , or go to the tailor where she goes. It’s bizarre, men become proprietorial , patriarchal as if its their right just because they were born with the right set of genitalia . You can’t just work , because I say so , you can’t wear this because I say so .

How , when what happens to men when they are in a relationship or are planning to get married ? They want tall girls, why ? Because , she can clean the fans? Or this would help in betting taller babies !

How did we go back in time? Why are we not valuing women for their achievements ? They be educated , smart , beautiful , sassy , confident , pretty ! When a girl offends or talks her mind , she is outspoken, when she is upset , she is Pmsing even if she isn’t ! They want girls with an Emma Watson figure , a Kylie Jenner figure , who is good at deen (religion ) , who is a doctor too, can cook 800 different meals, with no ex boy friend.

And , they have all these requests from us , but what are you bringing to the table? Yes ,we live in a society where everything is skewed , differences are stark , and more than often the pressures to be a perfect housewife , mixed with a siren at night juggling a job and the kids , in laws and also not have any mood swings,  plus being a fat cash cow bringing in dowry . This is a rant inspired by increasing frustrations faced by young women when they face the marriage mart , its like as we are dealing with cattle , and you know funny enough the female species are preferred there because of the milk they give..

Irony is that we are hailed as the mother of all kings , the giver of life , sustainer , and the mother of all beings but to prove ourselves again and again and to be perfect because of a set of standards set by some one centuries ago or artificially boosted by the marketing conglomerates to enhance and sell products . I know this isn’t going to end , it will still be an ugly sore , and will carry on but today a mother sent her daughter to me , to study in the evening classes and her name was Beauty . She’s enrolled in the village government school . That’s the confidence I want for the future !

Jalebis

 It all started with jalebis. They ones Ghasiya Ram made, sometimes so thin and crispy laden with sweetness and other days they were thick bulbous dripping with sugar syrup as if it would soak away all the sadness and saltiness of the world. The jalebis were her one weakness, coming back from work , she saw the rehri everyday . Ghasiya Ram parked it next to the entrance of the railway station . It was seductive to the least , the sweetness was the call of the freedom to run away and escape the zamindari’s roving eye . Ammaji was her mistress and she knew that she would never let her go or let her lead a life . She wanted to be free , marry someone of her choice , not the ugly , wispy standby driver she was pawning her off to .

Sheela was the young maid ,beautiful ,comely figure , 18 year old with a long long plait that hit her bottom every time she walked , she was just about everything from the safai wali , organiser, cleaner of everything , polisher of the silver , masseuse , to the chai wali humming to some obnoxious hindi movie song , but also helping herself to the tidbits of supari from the paandaan! Her fascination was the silver kajal stick of Ammaji that was carved with a peacock feather … it was what she wanted to own but .. there was always a but in her dreams and reality.

Chaudhary Hasan Khan , the biggest landowner of the district , ruled over his family and servants with an iron fist . He was also the Pir designate , the political nominee and also the largest employee of labourers in this part of Bihar . They were closer to Nepal than to rest of the India and everyone slipped there for contraband stuff .

Her father was one of the couriers who went to and fro , sometimes for Baby’s noodles and sometimes the T-shirt’s which Chotu sahib wore ! It was a strange world . Chaudhary Sahib wore pristine kurta pajamas with twinkling buttons ,some said they were diamonds , some said they were pukhraaj but they shone like anything. His kurta pajama , whiter than white was made by Rafiq Masterji who was a tailor from the British times and was of an age which no one could tell but his pauncha was the broad one unlike the narrow mori favored by the young set and by his younger brother . 

It was a household with a lot of undercurrents , and everyone wanted to be the king . It seemed as if all were fighting to be closest to Chaudhary Sahib , to be the heir apparent and control the purse strings .A strange imbalance had occurred , the older employees loyal to the older guard were faithful to Pir Sahib , and knew the Gaddi would carry on under him following the tenets of religion , maryada and izzat ;  a growing portion wanted the younger more debonair Chaudhary who promised freedom and looser cash handouts and also the forbidden alcohol!