Do you know what i did this summer ? contd..

You know why girls avoid getting married in a joint family. It’s because more the people, more kalesh. I mean fights. So here is the truth .My mom and my chachi have a love hate kind relationship, although they live miles apart. One in India and another in Andaman and Nicobar .One lives in the same city as the Prime Minister and another in same city as THE SUN.I belong to Jodhpur called the “Sun city”.

The moral of this unsaid story is that both of them were upset with each other with a reason they both did not know. And I was happy because now I need not spend my weekends with my Chachu's family and show my family bonding skills.

I had to join on 1st April so I packed my bags on 29th and we three musketeers – my mom, my chachu and me, discovered our way to Ghaziabad. It sounds like Baghdad, the land of mysteries.
While I landed on this uninhabited land, we had to cross the border. Just the change of auto rickshaw and there you are in Pakistan, I mean UP.

My paying guest accommodation is in Kaushambi. And for all those who had difficulty in remembering name of mountains in geography, this place is for you. All the buildings here are lookalike of each other and named after various mountains – Malaygiri , Shivalik , Satpura, Govardhan etc. I am about to live in Kanchanjunga apartments.

Flat no. 204 at Chabbra’s . The funniest part is the board that’s outside this flat. It says – “Granny’s Homemade “. Wow! I thought .Nowadays we can even get homemade grand moms. A minute later the other two musketeers broke my India shining dream and explained it’s actually brand name for home made pickle that Chabbra aunty sells.

Finally the door opens and we are welcomed by warm greetings of “Imli”, auntie’s maid servant. Then after initial hugs and kisses of the Punjabi get together, we finally settle down in my room. The house is well furnished with dark brown dusty sofa set covering three walls. They were covered with white bed sheets to keep them clean. On the fourth side; opposite to the entrance is a dining table with four chairs. Behind it is a corner table with a framed picture of a couple; probably auntie’s daughter and son-in-law. Also along with a glass table; there are also six square cushions to add to the beauty of covered sofa sets.

Chabbra aunty is a widow. Her story is like any other story of lost husband and estranged wife trying to stand on her own feet. For this she sells homemade pickle.
The brighter part is that she has two daughters who are doing pretty well but still she is keen on using her business sense at this age of taking rest. I respect her for that. Over the years she has become a miser, to the extreme that our made servant “Imli” sleeps without fan to save electricity.

As soon as my chachu left; me and my mom were reduced to Timon and Pumba ; instead of “THE THREE MUSKEETEERS” . Then as granny auntie was showing us around; I realized that the flat was actually large. It had two large bedrooms, a large hall with a double bed and a descent kitchen .Two tunnel like balconies with semicircular endings. But the only thing that bugged me was that if it rains how will I get wet? I mean the end where balconies meet the outer world was brutally covered and packed so that no foreign air could come inside and we all would feel at home. Whatever the reason may be, dust, pigeons or thieves. No one can stop me from feeling raindrops and smelling rain-kissed earth. Huh!!

“Just for two months beta.” “It will all pass like a short lived crush.”

“What??” “What did you say??”

“I mean; don’t be so choosy beta.” “It’s just two months; it will pass like a wink of sleep.” “Besides after this you are coming home naa.” “There you can have all the rain and all the wind.”

“Yes! don’t worry about me mom . You know how adjusting my nature is.”

Then I thought of all the incidents that proved my survival skills. Amongst all of them my favorite is coping up with my family. Twenty-one years of struggle for existence and now survival of the fittest (because I think my younger sister and brother will soon surrender); I guess I have come a long way.