Royally yours

53. To Village home

Chaitra

When he agreed to take us home, I sprinted out of the cabin. I called Bhabi and she was happy too. Then I informed vadina about our visit. They are all very happy. Of course, I was planning to go on Saturday and return by Monday but now I can stay back for a while and enjoy with everyone too.

The week passed quickly with all the youngsters jumping in joy about visiting a village. Yes, our family always celebrates Sankranthi at our Grandma's village and we are going there this year too. 

We first planned to go together on Saturday but Dev bhai asked me to come with them on Friday and I agreed as I was very much excited to meet my other cousins. They are all grandchildren of my grandparents brothers and sisters. Daksh and others will start by Saturday afternoon.

We rested on till the afternoon as we were all tired but Maa, Atha, and Nanamma prepared various dishes like always. They prepared ariselu, chakralu, chekka garelu, laddoo, kajjikayalu and other snacks. 

Daksh and his cousins reached by afternoon and Hithu went to pick them up. They were unaware of the routes so he went to bring them. I was playing with my cousins when they arrived. Radha was chasing me when their cars entered the premises. I was running to escape her but ran straight into Daksh's arms. He lost his balance due to my sudden attack but managed to balance us both.

"Akka, if you are done hugging bava garu, please introduce us," Swathi teased and I abruptly backed away from him with my cheeks flushed in embarrassment. I introduced all of them to each other.

"Chaithu, go show them their rooms we will prepare some snacks by the time they freshen up," Atha instructed and I asked them to follow me in. We are currently in our ancestral house. It was built by Nanamma's father and renovated from time to time as we celebrate Sankranthi here every year. It was built in the ancient model and the workers here maintain it very well. It has two floors and is properly ventilated. I showed all of them to their rooms which mumma, Atha, and Maami arranged for them.

"It's beautiful," Daksh praised once we were in front of his room. 

"Hmm, we four celebrated all our Sankranthi vacations here in this house. It has a lot of childhood memories of all of us." I recalled all the memories of us running around here, how we used to climb on the walls to pluck jujubes, how we used to steal guavas from the fields nearby. There are a lot of memories in this place.

"Why don't you freshen up? They will prepare something for you by then," I suggested and he went in to freshen up after kissing my forehead.

Once they were all done freshening up, we all sat in the veranda on the cots as the men started discussing politics or their business and women started with their jewelry and marriage talks, I, Hithu, and Viv felt so out of place.

"Mumma, I and Hithu are going to get jujubes for tomorrow. I am taking Viv along," I declared and got up with Viv in my hands.

"I will come along," Annayya too got up from his place followed by Dev bhai. Both my sisters-in-law refused to accompany us. Atha suggested we should take the Chauhans with us but except for Daksh and Naksh bhai, everyone else chose to stay back and rest. We decided to take one car rather than taking two cars.

"Where are we going first?" Hithu asked once he got into the driving seat while Annaya took the passenger seat. We all settled in the back.

"Mango orchid, we can get most of the things there itself," I replied and everyone agreed. We went to the orchid. Annayya and Dev Bhai decided to assemble the dried sticks for tomorrow, Hithu and Naksh bhai took the responsibility of plucking the mango leaves for decoration while I took the responsibility of plucking jujubes. It was actually one of the workers who did that for me while I just gathered them. Viv was in Daksh's arms and was helping me in gathering them.