Rains

I remember my childhood. Those days there were huge rains in the villages. I was in a remote village where I was born. Only cottages made of bamboo-chachari wall and thatched roofs were in the village. Some of the lower caste people had thatched roofs over mud walls. The fist brick building having wooden beam and RB roof was constructed by late Mahashankar Jee. Previously, he was very poor but he was a very intelligent student. Any how he passed Matriculation but due to poverty could not get admission in college. He got a job in a jute mill. He earned too much and made the first brick house in my interior village. We children were daily visiting the house. It was quite a new thing for us. We were going to the roof and played so many games. In those days Mahashankar Jee did not pay attention to me. But when I grew some old he talked to me too much and praised me.

                 There were two ponds beside my home. During rains fishes used to start moving towards fields from these ponds. In the mid way, Pitajee caught them. So many buckets were filled by different types of fishes in the night. In the very night, couple of fish-buckets was sent to my sister, two km away from my village. In the morning, surplus fishes were distributed among other people. This was regular feature during rains. The taste of those fishes cannot be imagined. Those were natural fishes. Today’s fishes are imported and artificial having no taste at all.

                                         My mother had died when I was merely four year old. Naanee (My fathers maternal aunt whom I called naanee) tamed me. Those days there were heavy rains with loud thunder sound. I was hiding myself in the naanee’s lap. Naanee used to recite some prayer-song to save our lives from those storming rains and thunders. In some rains when the water drops trickled from the roof we were moving our beds the whole night.