My Obra Days - Sweet Childhood

III. SWEET DREAM

In my early childhood, my favorite place to sleep was the lap of my mother. As on today also I can say that the greatest pleasure for a child is to sleep in his/her mother's lap. Up to V standard, my mother never left me in the night. It was only after this incident I started to share the bed with my siblings.

Before going to the bed, mother used to tell me the stories of brave Kings, Princes, Ramayan, Mahabharat and Shrimadbhagwadgeeta in her own way till the start of my rhythmic snoring. She had a huge collection of such stories and rarely repeated them until we asked her to do so.

On the other end, our father had a treasure of real life and fictional stories. He was crazy about watching games both on the grounds and on the TV. Besides all these, he was a real connoisseur of good food and sweets too and this was his best part for us at least we would think so. Often he bought some sweet for us while returning from the office. On Sundays, he usually offered us curd and Jalebi in the morning. It was my father's wont to buy luscious sweets on the very first day of every month, apparently being the paycheck day.

I remember, on that day we were very happy since it was the 1st of May. After finishing our game of hide and seek in the colony we returned home quite early that evening. We, the three, sat in the drawing room and started playing Ludo. This was the game of snake and ladder; I was losing every time due to my bad luck as well as cheating of my siblings. But I didn't care, for I was just passing the time with one ear at the door. At 6 p.m. as the latch of outer gate clanked, I left the chair at once and ran towards the door. I was quite sure that this would be the father at the door and YES... I was right. He was putting the cycle on its stand. There was a packet in his hands. It was properly packed but little bit damped.

I asked the father," What is that in your hands, Papa?"

Father caressed me and said," This is sweet for you my child. But I am not going to tell you the name"

"Ok, then let me guess..... Is this Rosogulla?"

"Ohhh! How intelligent you are my boy! You are absolutely right." And he smiled.

This gave me immense pleasure and I started dancing since "Rosogulla" was my favorite sweet and yes it is still the favorite one today too.

We all enjoyed the tasty sweet in the evening. Mother kept all the remaining pieces locked in the thin, small, grilled shelf, which she used to put the eatables. And just one word more, we didn't have refrigerator those days.

In the night when I went to the bed after taking the meal, I was only thinking about the sweet. I asked mother for that and she tried to put me off soothingly by saying that I would be given the sweet only if I read out the tables from 2 to 9.

I recited her all the tables but 7 and 9. According to the mother's condition, I was not eligible for the sweet yet she gave me one. But this prodded my greed for the sweet.

She then started telling me the story of Bhakt Prahlad that night but couldn't complete as usual, due to my snores in the midway of the story. In the midnight, I woke up to go to the toilet. The lights were switched off. There was complete darkness in the room and in the home. This was my normal practice to make mother awake while going in the yard in the nights; obviously, I was terribly afraid of Ghosts and Witches planted by the brother at Mango tree. However, I avoided calling for mother that day; I don't know why? As I stepped out the Verandah, I sighted upwards the mango tree, my nerves quivered with strain. The tree gave me a view that I had never seen before. There was a monotonous repetition of sound chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-.......I tried to call mother but I went hoarse and couldn't call her. I was haunted badly for some time. Even the sound of my own steps gave me the freighted feeling of someone else' presence in my vicinity. The pee which forced me to awake back-pedaled. I saw my behoof in returning back at once. I tried to shot myself in the bedroom with the rocket speed. But my legs were stone tied. Then I took the support of the wall and moved to the mother step by step, slowly..., slowly... Finally, I found myself in the room. I tried to call the mother but my voice got choked. To be very frank, the absolute fear was flowing in my nerves. I sat there for five minutes thinking and the last thought dragged me out of all the fear. I was restored all of sudden since my desire for sweet had swept that away. I went to the shelf, opened only a little the grilled door from upside, pushed my right hand inside the shelf, opened the upper lid of the packet, picked a piece of sweet out and put that in my mouth....... but..........

As my hand moved towards my mouth, It was my elder sister who snatched the sweet off and gulped it in one go. Although her activity irritated me I gave her impunity and tried for the second one. She once again snatched the sweet from my hand. I was bewildered at her temerity but this time too, I forgave her and tried for the third one. But...., she repeated herself! Now, this was the limit. There should be a limit. This was the time for the punishment. I glared her fiercely and swung my hand to slap her hard........ And I did it.

But everything went wrong. It was the mother, my sweet mother, my lovely mother who started groaning. I was perplexed that why was she heaving a sigh? Then I realized that it was the mother who got slapped and........and.......Oh, God! I was dreaming. At once my elder brother shook me out of the slumber by imprinting four to five slaps one after another without any hesitation making my face purple and I woke up instantly. Even after the hard slaps of brother I remained silent and started gazing at mother.

Until then mother had come in normal state and she scolded a lot to the brother and told him that it was not mischief and everything happened in dream unknowingly. As she started reprimanding him I also realized that it wasn't the matter of so many slaps which he donated and I started crying and sprawling.

She called me to her lap and consoled me for at least 10 minutes but I didn't stop sprawling. Finally, the mother played a trick with me.

"What will you take to be quiet my child?"

Ohh! She caught the nerve. I uttered with tears in my eyes, "Two Rosogullas."

She laughed and said," It's OK. But I'll give you the sweets only after you settled."

It was a good offer and I couldn't disapprove this. She then gave me the sweets, sang lullabies for me and drew me once again in the world of sweet dreams.

Author's note: My generous and sweet readers, I hope you would be living your childhood while going through these stories. If yes, please do vote. The next story is on its way. Till then, keep smiling.