The Village Girl I

My father worked in a Govt. Office in a small town. Once in a year, mainly during my summer vacation he used to visit his parents and we gave him company. By us, I meant me and my mother. My brother who is taller than me now was not present on earth at that time. I don’t remember the year but I was in 3rd grade. Like every year we packed for 1 month vacation to my Grand Father’s place which was a village somewhere in Bihar. One of the reason I liked my grandpa’s place was availability in abundance of mangoes. I was least talkative in my family especially with elders and they all knew it. It always worked as the less you talk the less number of rules are imposed on you. I slept after unpacking as I know from next day I have to be real fresh to eat those mangoes and play games.

Next day I had my breakfast and then I went in search of kids who visited the place like me and somehow, as my grandma told, I was related to them. My Grand Father being smallest of his seven brothers and one sister explains a lot. Anyway, I found them playing some game with squares and circles drawn on earth and a pebble which was supposed to be hit only by foot and one foot has to be in air all the time. Sounds tough but my childhood friends were experts in that game. I was introduced briefly to a new chap named Ajay. Later I came to know that his father worked in Nagpur and his family is also there for nearly the same time as me. We were playing when a soothing voice hit my ear, “Rahuuuuul, mummy’s calling.” I turn around to see her but only managed to see her back as she fled from the spot. Ajay too left. That day got over without any other pleasant surprises.

Next day I woke up late, and had a secret mission to find about that girl. I was just curious to know. First I thought I will ask Ajay but my instinct voted against that idea. Though later that day when I did not see Ajay with other kids, I asked about him to a friend. “He has left for 2 days to visit some place nearby.” Ouch said my heart and I heard it. Depressed for next 2 days, I ate lots and lots of mangoes. The morning after those 2 days I woke up very early as I believed in phrase “early bird catches the worm.” But I was not a bird and she was definitely not a worm. My mom was puzzled at my abnormal behavior but she never asked. Dear Lord! That day was so long. I waited and waited but no sign of her coming back. Finally, in the late evening Ajay with his parent came and they looked real tired. But there was so no sign of that lady kid. I talked Ajay in to telling me about his family and then I came to know that his parents had a twin of which one was Ajay and the other was that girl who had occupied most of my thought process for last four days. The day ended there.

Next day, I got up at my usual time and after going through the normal routine I was ready for any game. I went where my friends usually play but no one was there. I started my search the start point was always backyard of our house. I went there and what I saw just brought mixed emotion in me. I had seen lots of Hindi movie by that time and I cannot speak of other actors but she was definitely the female lead of my story. She was right there underneath the huge lemon tree playing with mud and earth.
The conversation went like this:

Me: “Hi, where is Ajay?” (Wasn’t that a very easy way to start?)

She: “Who are you?” (Not too happy with someone who saw her playing with mud and getting dirty.)

Me: “Ummm… you have put too much water in the soil and that way you can’t make a toy.” (As if I am a master of art and craft)

She: “Ajay has gone with other boys near the mango grove. Who are you?”

Me: “Rahul, Can I watch you making those toys?” (Man! She was giving me a look which can go either way; I thought she was going to say yes…)

She: No. (And she started to put some soil on the mess she had created by putting so much water)

Me: what is your name? (I was not going to give up that easily.)

But she continued with her work. My ego was badly hurt but I said to myself “Never mind my boy, she might have had tough day yesterday and you might be just a victim of over strained mind.” I had no other option but to leave and try my luck some other day. I turn around and hardly walked a few steps when I heard a familiar voice.

“Rahul”

It was her voice. I gave a puzzled look at her and my evil part suggested to me to leave and don’t go near her “She is one who was full of ego few minutes back. Let her come and beg for your time.” “Shut up” I told to myself and crawled towards her. But this time I had a dignified look on my face which told her silently to watch her words and Rahul won’t tolerate such disrespect again.

She: “I have always read about Indian villages and they are exactly the same as I had read. I am here for few more weeks so I will enjoy every bit of it. Do you know how to make toys, Rahuuul?” (My name was stretched and the puppy face she was making made my life hard. Though I gave little advice in what not to do while making toy few minutes back, I had no idea to make one myself.)

Me: oh yeah, I have made such toys many times. What is your name ummm…?

She: Twinkle. (Twinkle twinkle little star… twinkle as in handle, stars twinkle, do you? And many more phrases came in my mind and I was finding it difficult to hide my shining teeth.)

Me: Nice name. (Such an obvious lame line I could think to say, better if I could have used above phrase.)

She: Hmmm… So what are you going to make? (Boy, she means business.)

Me: let’s start with a tortoise.

I put more soil on the heap she had created, to make it little less muddy and more stable. I tore a big lump out of it and started to make a sphere. After that I dropped it on earth so that it took the shape of a hemisphere. All this she was watching me patiently. Then I took five more portion of soil though lesser in size this time. Made sphere of all of them and in similar fashion transformed them to hemisphere. Four of them I stick it to bigger hemisphere as legs and the fifth one as head. I saw panic in her eyes as it was difficult to recognize which is leg and which one is head. I ignored her puzzled eyes and with the help of a broom stick drew the fingers on the four legs. Though I was not sure as the fingers of my tortoise resembled human fingers a lot. I took two tine dark sand grains and stuck them to the head as eyes. Thus my tortoise is complete. She was smiling now and I was watching her pretty smile.

She: “Rahul, I want to tell you something.” (And my heart skipped a few beat. Wasn’t that too early.)

Me: “What?” (My mouth was filled with saliva at that moment and that made that what a little blurry to hear.)

She: “You don’t know how a tortoise look. You forgot its tail and their legs have fins.”

Now girl or no girl, pretty or not, no one can question my infinite knowledge in zoology. I think I had a good knowledge on animals and had a few big fat books on animals and reptiles which I had revised many times. I sometimes used to boast in front of my dumb friends that I grew counting crocodile’s teeth.

Me: “Tortoise has no fins in their legs, and for your information turtles look similar to tortoise and have fins.”

She: “Turtles! Are they not female tortoise?” (I was going to laugh on her face.)

Me: No twinkle, they are completely different reptiles. I have books at home where I have read about them. I will show you next year.

She: “No need, Internet will tell me.” (INTERNET!! Phew what was that, her boy friend? )

Me: “Who is Internet?”

She: “I will tell you tomorrow. Bye”

Me: “Bye” (So loudly that even I had difficulty hearing it.)

And she ran away. I was sad. I was not even properly introduced to her and I came to know about her boy friend. Hmm “Internet”, quite a weird name for a boy. At least for this night Internet was villain in my story.

To be continued