My life has been a saga of a driftless person who got buffeted around by the vagaries of destiny.The winds of change at every turning of my growing up pushed me in any direction the wind blew.There was no compulsion of any sort for me to conform to any sort of discipline.I was a free bird to take wings in any direction.I flitted around or skipped out anywhere or everywhere where my whim took me. I was my own lord and no member in the family took much notice of me.They considered me as a kid who should be left on her own. They knew that my requirements at that time were my food and some toys,Those were the safe days when children feared no dangers when the times were safe.People had only the basic needs which had to be fulfilled.Mainly it included feeding a large family.Each member was assigned some specific duty to carry out which was directly linked to the procurement of food .For instance if a person was assinged the duty of fetching the vegetable from the garden early in the morning and if he missed it he would not get his food in time and he could miss his class. And no body was there to worryfor him because there was a full brood who were in the same process of being educated.Therefore it was not a big deal whether some went to school or missed it.The person himself was the sufferer since he would be reprimanded by the teachers who those days were consciencious and responsible.I belonged to the smaller group who had no business with books or studies.I but was a precocious child who had eyes and ears for everything happening around me. Especially i would keenly follow my aunt who was almost my age only a few years my senior.She was the last sibling of my grandparents and quite a pampered one at that. She was my competitor and quite envious of my witty ways. I was never entangled by the malicious tricks of one of my uncles who had a complete control over the smaller siblings . He had taken full charge of disciplining the entire household. He had usurped this authority from his aged parents who let him be and perhaps they felt relieved of the responsibility of lookig after the entire brood who according to them needed regular supervision to check their waywardness eapecially the girls. As a result my uncle took relish in exploiting this freedom.He was almost on prowl on us the small children to catch us red handed if we dared to break any set norm fixed by him. He had an exhaustive list of do's and don'ts which we small children had to follow while breaking them invited rigorous punishment.He himself was a college student but he looked like a house-holder.He was omnipresent.He spoke with a ponderous voice and his speech was never clear or spontaneous. He chewed every word before uttering it which created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. I being a precocious child would always sense his rising urge to exercise his authority over us which surfaced in a slow motion. Initially he would lie low giving the impression that he hardly paid any attention to the small liberties which we took and which he took as defiance to his authority.But i always knew that he was gearing himself up to confront us with full vengeance. At the same time he knew the timid and gullible amongst us . My aunt being one of them.She was quite timid and scared of her brother he being the immediate guardian to her after her parents whereas i was one generation removed. He would scare her into spilling out all our secret plans and thus we had to face the music.
There was one more restriction on us. We were not to ask for any pocket money but he knew that we took some from our grandmother on the sly.He also knew that we spent it on some titbits which we bought from the nearby market.He was a hefty young man, perenially hungry and on the lookout to get something to eat at all times. We children were quite wary of this.Therefore our foreys to the market were in the afternoons only when he was supposedly busy in studying.He had a funny way of learning his lessons. He would sing them aloud which proved a boon for us.We felt safe from his prying eyes.But hopes generally betrayed us.He would almost invariably catch us red handed and with a deep whisper like voice ask us to part with our wares.His eyes took a glint of mischief in them and we quietly surrendered before him.He dismissed us authoritatively and we could hear him chomping on merrily.
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