Continuing with Orissa...
I remember the place used to be packed with monkeys during summer... Come summer you dont see human beings.. only monkeys.. well whats the difference anyways..
We dint have this problem in the first house but in the second what with us being on the second floor.. in proximity to tree tops.. we always found some or the other monkey on guard at our doors..
Our television was placed in my parents room.. which had the famous balcony mentioned in the previous blog..
Monkeys found haven in our balcony.. and i m sure if we hadnt been careful we would have had to give up our beds to the monkeys too...

One day at lunch which as always i was first to gobble up and finish.. i picked up a 'pappad' and an 'Orange' for dessert and made my way to the bedroom.. and planted myself in front of the TV.. something or the other was on.. but i dont remember anything that had happened before nor after this...
I had settled in bed.. and there were a group of chattering monkeys at our balcony as always.. nothing new..
Well by now you would have guessed what happened..
well I had no clue then... so there i was watching TV innocently.. a little girl of 4 munching on pappad.. waiting to finish it to peel the orange when a HUGE SUPER SIZED MONKEY comes bounding into the bedroom.... i watch it in slow motion... my brain processes the affair... I scream.. i throw the Orange over my head and run to the other room and hide my head under the pillows..... My family still at lunch dont understand a thing... they just hear my small muffled scream.. see me running outta the room.. and watch me bewildered..They rush to the room and see the monkey happily strut away with the Ripe Juicy Big Orange... and get the whole episode right..
That was my first brush with my kind... and it still feels super..
My family says i was brilliant to have thrown the Orange at the monkey.. but little do they know it had accidently dropped outta my hands in fear..???
Cant guess what would have happened otherwise... unlike what others say the monkey would have attacked me.. i think it would have been a classic moment where the monkey would have come bounding over to me.. and would have held out its hand and i would have shook it understanding the unspoken and we would have had a jam sharing the BEEEEG ORANGE....
Shit.. Opportunity lost....

Back in the 1980s.... well not that far back... Lets start again..
My early years of life began in Orissa.. well i was born here alright.. but we had shifted there before my vision and memory process grew.... not that i remember much bout Orissa too..
I just remember we had fun there... a new place.. new culture.. new language.. new political scenario.....
and the four of us for each other..

The first some years were spent in a small house attached to another where our owners lived.. of which i dont remember much except for the girl there named 'Baby'.
Especially coz she was a pain in the ass.. me even at that age knew what that meant.. She used to be the main character in all the episodes that happened there..
Like that time when we were all playing Blindman on the terrace.. and who was blindfolded bro?? Not me surely..
Well whoever it was ... i remember her toppling over the wall.. and my bros hand hanging over the parapet extended in a vain attempt to catch her..
And then the scene of her lying on the ground below... and pieces after that.. and the reilef that she was ok except for a small wound on her forehead.. and how it was held that my bro had pushed her while playing and that was how she had lost her footing and all that.. while my poor bro was nowhere near her.. I think....
She and her younger bro used to come over to our place and scream the house down.. and destroy our things and jump on our sofa.. and whenever something went wrong.. it was always blamed on my bro.. (Well that helped him brace himself for what was lying in store for him in his future ahead.. the number of times Neenakka got away unscathed after doing the worst of the worstest mischiefs.. and my bro bearing the brunt..)
We have had good days with her too.. but well surely i dont remember..
Heeeeeeee......

We had to shift house I dont remember why.. but the next one was a second floor of a 2 storeyed building..
This was more on the roadside. so i remember seeing all the horrible scenes of the curfews and riots that used to break out frequently, unfold in front of my eyes.. unless my ma got me inside and closed the doors..
That palce was a mess when such things come up..
I remember me sticking my head out of our balcony one day... when suddenly i saw people running around screaming wildly and setting things ablaze... and shouting slogans.. and in minutes the police (ever ready... coz there wasnt a day when these things did not happen in atleast one end of the whole state) chasing everybody out.. n down the street..
I remember seeing a young man run into his house and closing the door on the policemen.
And imagine the nerve of him when they left him alone.. He put his head outta his window and stuck his tongue out at the policeman nearby.... Oh wow... the cop just couldnt stand it.. and he barged into the house and dragged the youngster out by the back of his shirt collar and bundled him into the jeep with a dozen others and drove away..
I can still see his mothers face blurred in my memory crying out for forgiveness, begging them to not take her son away.....
Well the man should have thought of this plight beforehand..
Hard Luck..