Those three days of <br />Sankraanti every year <br />from the times i've known <br />it was as if the house was <br />flodded with people from <br />all walks of life and we were <br />designers, architects and land-scapers <br /> <br />into the late hours returned dad <br />from his endless hours of work <br />and then the night would come alive <br /> <br />trunks of dolls carefully wrapped <br />in our swaddling clothes were carefully <br />spread on beds n blanktes-porcelean <br />english lady that grandma brought from <br />her maternal home, birth of jesus with <br />mary and joseph on either side of the baby-bed, <br />two variants of rama, sita, laxman and hanuman <br />dasavataaras, brahmins at a meal, toddy tapper, <br />ravenous crow, kirana merchant n his wfe, bowl of fruits, <br />birds in delicate transperant glass-you name it, it's there <br />and down below on either side were landscaped parks, forests, <br />hospital, dotted with lanes of sprouted methis n mustrad... <br /> <br />somehow dad had fascination only for the white procelean <br />and none of those earthern gods in synthetic paint <br /> <br />every year would be added a new doll <br />all dolls collected over thirty years and now <br />when i count the years, they're by now sixty plus <br />sadly locked up in trunks and palced on the attic... <br />the last even i recall was some twnety years ago <br />when our own children were barely two years... <br /> <br />all innovation and appropriate techology we learnt <br />observing dad arranging some six to eight rows <br />with every wooden plank to bricks and stoned from the road-side <br />to rice tins and travel trunks precariously balancing all the dolls... <br /> <br />people came all the three days <br />to recieve 'taambulam' and praised <br />the dolls endlessly and finally declare <br />'doctor ji has four dolls, why these again! ' <br />and we would laugh shyly and see them off <br /> <br />the fourth day was a sad farewell to the dolls <br />once again wrapped carefully back into the trunk... <br /> <br />life was simple, fun, and there was so much to look forward to...<br /><br />indira babbellapati<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sankraanti/
