Ghosts in my dream and a Red Hand print in the wall

I don't know when I actually got introduced to ghosts or 'bhoot,petni'. Probably from the pictured epic of Ramayana for children or from the time my mother scared me telling that while eating food if it spills on my clothes and I don't change them I will definitely see ghosts in dreams. Sounding funny??? Well for the first time even I thought so. I thought she is playing a trick on me so that I eat carefully without spilling. But that night I dreamt of a horrible ghost and I still remember it. An ugly looking person with long curly hairs and sharp teethes dancing in front of the map of India and there was fire all around the border of the map.
It sounds funny and you won't be able to draw any correlation between a ghost and the Map of India. But that was my dreadful dream. I got so much scared that from that day I always eat carefully and till today carefully change my clothes in case of food spills.
I always used to stay away from any discussion on that topic and used to divert my mind with positive thoughts. I have seen something natural about being drawn towards positive while you get to know about the negative. I rather choose to believe that a positive aura will always sail our boat through anything negative.
I was forced to stay alone in my small rented flat in Bangalore when I was a student of masters. My roommate got her leg fractured and couldn't join me after the vacation. Initial few days I literally begged few friends to come and stay with me. They had all their important appointments and reasons to show a tantrum. I decided that I have to learn to be self-sufficient. So I started staying alone. I used to read Gita every day before going to bed and avoid discussing anything negative throughout the day even in college. In that span of 20 days, not even a single day I dreamt anything bad. Hence I became more confident that its all in our mind. We should always choose the bright over the dark and the +ve over the negative.
That was just the beginning. After marriage when I relocated to Hyderabad I had no idea about the extent of the summer heat of Hyderabad. Since there were possibilities of my husband getting relocated to Europe and I wanted to pursue research for at least a year, I chose a flat affordable enough to pay from my stipend of a Junior Research Fellow (there was nothing fancy about it). It was on the top floor with a long verandah adjoining the hall and a bathroom at the end of the Verandah. There was one more bathroom attached to the bedroom.
Before the onset of the summer, my husband went to Switzerland for a month. Few days after he left, the summer suddenly appeared and I have completely swept away with the extent of heat. I mostly started staying back in CCMB  labs the whole night and working throughout the night and used to come back home in the morning and sleep till afternoon. I used to eat my meals at CCMB. I never got time to look around the house. Atanu's stay got extended for 10 more days due to some volcanic ash ejection. So finally the day before his scheduled flight, I decided to clean the house, do some grocery and stay back home during the night. After all the cleaning and cooking when finally I went to bed, I found it literally impossible to sleep because of the dry heat. I came out and made a bed in the hall. Shifted the air cooler to that room ( I thought the circulation will be better as there was verandah all around. But still, I was feeling scorching heat as if the whole house is on fire...... It was already past midnight. I decided to splash water on the floor as that might cool down the room. So to get the water, instead of going to the inside bathroom I went to the bathroom outside. I kept the bucket under the tap and after putting the tap on, I felt a little relaxed with the cold water touching my feet. I was just moving out with the filled bucket that suddenly a small plastic mirror attached to the pin in the wall fall down. It was framed with plastic all around. I took it keeping the bucket in the side and placed it back to the position and suddenly my eyes went to a red handprint on the wall. A feeling of chill ran down my spines and I immediately ran to the hall with the bucket. I shut the door and started reasoning my mind. I was scared to the core and have no other option but to control myself. I just lay down in front of the cooler and was praying to god. I don't remember when I finally fall asleep.
My husband was supposed to reach home by 6 A.M. When I woke up, I checked the watch ( I never ever take off my watch except while taking shower) and it was already 7:30 A.M. Yesterday's memory was out of my mind and I started wondering if the flight is late. Still, I decided to go and check outside. I opened the door and I saw him sitting on the stairs. He said after knocking the door constantly for half an hour he had no other option but to wait outside and wait for me to get up. I usually have a very light sleep. But probably because of the sudden fear and anxiety I slept like a dead ( being in the hall also I couldn't hear all those knocks). I was really happy that he was back.
After having breakfast I gathered all the courage and asked him if there is any red handprint in the outside bathroom. He said that he has seen it there as it was there from before. But he too found that incident of mirror falling down a bit strange as no wind was blowing at that time( even with the wind blowing, the probability of that moving the mirror is very less)!!
I never dared to go to that bathroom again during our stay in that house even after though there was no precise proof of abnormal activity other than that afterward.

I know where the sun resides

Who knew then that the sun and the moon whom I see everyday, whom I refer to as mama (meaning maternal uncle in bengali) are actually so distant habitat. At least I never knew it then as a 3 years old. The Ramnaar road no 4 road has a end from where it bifurcates into lane which are lying perpendicularly to the main road. And at that junction where all the three lanes are meeting there used to be a Mosque. So if I used to look at the left hand side standing in front of our gate I used to see the Mosque which was about 0.5km away. Every evening I used to observe that the sun used to go and hide behind the Mosque. So the genius in me assumed that the Sun must be staying somewhere behind the Mosque.
I requested my mom several time to please take me to Sun's home once. Every time she used to tell that she will take me later. So one day I decided I can't wait anymore and started preparing for the visit. One day the opportunity came as I found my mother occupied with some cooking in the kitchen. Slowly I came out of the house and started walking towards the sun. That was evening and the sun was about to set. Few of my neighbor saw me walking alone in the street and immediately stopped me. They forcibly brought me home and told my mother everything.
Being terribly upset I kept on crying for my failed mission. Later one evening my mother took me to that area. By the time we reached it was already late evening and the sun was already set. So I keep on roaming fromone lane to another forcing my mother to come along in search of the suns house.I came back home bing upset that I could not identify the Sun's house.
It was only later when I got to know about rotation and revolution I realised  how stupid I was!!   

Aari aari aaari

'Aari ari aari,
kalke jabo bari,
porshu jabo ghar,

hanumaan er leje dhore

tanatani kor,

ek ghoti jaal ene
durga puja kor...'
Sorry, really can't recollect any more!!!! And the lines too also might have got interchanged. Pardon me for such a bad memory!! Find it difficult even to believe that it used to be such a big integral ritual of my childhood days. So many times everyday I must have got upset with friends and siblings and everytime broken my ties of friendship with them showing my little finger and by default uttering these lines.Now I find it so funny. But at that point of time it used to be so emotional breakup. Only good part was that ari was never permanent. In good time we used to heal the broken ties by touching each others thumb and uttering 'BHAB'. Just one short, simple word was enough powerful to make it up for everything.Strange right!
Probably all war, quarrels and everything bad are longer procedure....but everything good is always short and precise.
Another good part about this 'Ari' and 'Bhab' was that we never used to keep anything inside our heart. Then e used to be open. But now how many of us really have the guts to utter those words again??
Well to tell you frankly, I still do!! But not always and not with everybody.

Bulbul pakhi moyna tiye

'Bulbul pakhi moyna tiye,aeyna jana gaan shuniye......dudhbhat debo sondesh makhiye'-Antara Choudhury. I still get fascinated by this song. I got an audio cassette of this song gifted to me on my 6th birthday. That was the first time I made friendship with this singer.Almost all the songs she sang sits with the imagination a children can think about....I loved it. Till today whenever I listen to these songs I feel well I am again knocking in my childhood's door.
Actually songs are n integral part of our life. It make us smile,dream,laugh and cry. It can directly connect to our heart.

Horek mal 3 taka...ar dugdugi bajiye sonpapdi

Horekmaaaal!!!!....Horekmaaal!!!!.....used to be a basket full of delight. A person carrying a 'tukri' or a big cane basket carrying on his head with all sorts of small to big articles like small colorful toys, cups, saucers, small bowls, strainers, playing cards, hair clips, hair band and etc, each costing 3 rupees then, is what we used to call Horekmal. Today it feels like as if that was a miniature china bazaar inside a basket. The best part was that everything used to be of the same price. We used to feel thrilled to look inside that basket and used to wait eagerly whenever they pass by. Though everyday afternoon they will definitely pass by calling out 'harekmaal 3 taka' but not everyday will the elders of the house allow them inside the house. So we used to wait eagerly for such days when my mother or grandmother will have some plan of small shopping and call them inside. Gradually from horekmaal 3 taka, it became horekmal 5 taka. Now today,I wont even wonder if they tell each costs 15/20 rupees. But surprisingly nowadays whenever I go home for a vcation I dont hear Horekmal any more. It might be due to inflation they are unable to cope up with the investment or people find it difficult to buy such small things with such big prices. As horekmal of Rs3/Rs5, each used to be really sweet. I MISS U HOREKMAAL!!!!

Another winter delight was sonpapdi....soft sugar candies. The person used to keep them in a glass box kept around the neck and on one hand he used to have the dugdugi .Dugdugi onomatopoeic name for percussion instrument shaped like an hourglass, with both ends covered with goatskin. A string with two small lead or iron balls is fastened around the narrow waist of the dugdugi. When the instrument is moved rapidly in one hand, the small balls hit the skin, making sounds like dugdug-dug dugdug dug. The dugdugi is also known as damvaru or damaru(*) and in the other he used to hold colorful packets of pink-colored sugar candies. We used to hear that tempting sound of dugdugi and start pleading to elders to give us money for buying sonpapdis. Each sonpapdi used to cost 50p in our time. They used to be round in shape and creamish white color and used to melt as soon as we put them inside our mouth. I think today Sonpapdi costing a huge which are available in famous sweet shops like Haldiram and etc also can't beat that taste.

SOURCE FOR THE COMPLETE MEANING:
(*)-.http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/D_0302.HTM

Ramnagar 4 no H/s school (Madrasha school)

, One Prominent feature about Ramnagar Road no 4 is its two schools. The second thing is its broad lane compared to other lanes of Ramnagar. Just as you enter through Sankar Chowmuni and you cross the first crossing, there is a well famous girls school called Vani Bidyapith H/s Girls school. That my home is near to that school obviously used to make my home more attractive to all my friends (boys of course) of my school. And that school is, of course, significant to me since that was the center or my Madhyamik(10th final) exam. One more reason is that Ninipishi, my 3rd pishi(sister of my dad) was a teacher of that school.
Well and about the second school, as we move farther down the lane after the 3rd crossing comes the next school i.e, Madrasha school. Though a long time back it got adopted by the government and it became Ramnagar 4 no H/s boys school, but still, to me, it is the same Madrasha school. Though this is not a very famous school still many people from my family studied their initial 1 year in this school. Moreover, when I was small, I have a fascination with studying in that school. There is a sweet incident related to that. I was around two years old then and used to tell my mother that I want to study at Madrasha School. So one fine day, when she went to take a shower and others in the family, was busy, I took the chance of taking a walk towards my dream. Barefooted and dressed in some banyan I took my small suitcase made of tin having all my rhyme books and crayons in my one hand and a plastic bat and ball in the other and started walking towards the school. An aunt in my neighbor of the opposite house ( Shupti Pishi of Durga Bhavan) saw me on the road and asked me where I am going. It seems I replied confidently to her that I am going to School. Without disturbing my mood she immediately informed my family and they all came running after me. They took me to the school and asked the Headmistress there if I can be admitted. But the headmistress told me still I am too small for the school.
So later they put me into a nursery school of Ramnagar Road no 4 called Shishu Mahal. I dint liked that school somehow and used to make a lot of fuss about going to school. Then after few months in another nursery school called Montessori School of Maya Aunty, I got selected in the admission of my alma-mater Shishu Bihar H/s School where I studied for the next 15 years of my life. 

Ulto diker Durga Bhavan er Gyan Babu ar Rajmohanda

Considering life to be a real stage drama, there are always some special characters whose memories are always    cherished even though they might not be intriguingly related with our life. In my early budding years such was the role played by Gyanbabu or gyandadu of Durga bhabhan (the house which is just oppposite to our house. He was a balled old person with  a very serious look. Probably he used to give lectures to everybody and that is why he was named as gyan babu)), Saraswatir Ma ( This lady brought up her daughter 'Saraswati'by selling milk in the locality. Later got her married also. But her husband left her and so she came back to Ramnagar to stay with her mom. She was a primary school teacher but still they had those cows then), Kuttir ma and Joyer ma dida (my grand moms friends), shibupaul dadu (Joy uncle's dad and definitely a versatile personality of that time. He used to paint, do gardening and had an awesome bungalow. He used to get his grand daughter tushididi along so that I can play with her). And those dida's used to come to meet my thakurma and sometimes read along ,Ramayana,mahabharata or manasaangal. Well I must ofcourse mention Rajmohan da!! My grand mom used to appoint him for mansion work on daily basis for putting fence around garden, for harvesting coconuts beetle nuts and e.t.c. I especially usedto like the way he used to puff is Bidi and take sip on the tea that used to served to him in some old glass. From the plate they used to transfer the whole puffed rice (muri) into a special sack made out of the towel they used to wear. There was another lady who used to come once in a while to beg money from Thakurma. Thakurma used to call her 'kalishiddhya' and somehow she used to look very scary. As soon I used to hear her voice I used to ran away and hide besides Thakurmas bed. Today most of them passed   away. I dont even have any picture of them. Inspite they are alive in my memory and just as lively as I can see any of my friends now.  

Grahan...........the eclipse

Solar or lunar eclipse.....Grahan used to create a thrilling effect and fantacy in our mind. It was mainly because there were demons named Rahu and Ketu involved in the story.

In Hindu astrology Rahu and Ketu are known as two invisible planets. They swallow the Sun or the Moon causing either a solar or a lunar eclipse. So this whole story used to thrill us. And the rules was that nobody used to keep any uncovered food as then Rahu Ketu will come and eat that. So on the day of eclipse, we all used to have our supper early and the utensils used to get cleaned much before th eclipse starts. People used to chant the name of god so that they save us from the demons. The whole day used to thrilling that now RAHU KETU is getting ready to eat the SUN or the MOON. We used to have some vacant space in between our kitchen and living rooms in my ancestral house. Considering RAHU KETU should see us we never used to come out of the room only,during the grahan. Every body used to be inside the house waiting for the time when the eclipse will get over.

But as we started growing up, we started realising that , that was just a mythological representation of the actual scietific fact. But today I really miss those thrill and wonder I used o have as a child.