Papa writes a story

 

One of my favourite things to do as a child was listen to my Grandmother's stories about her childjhood and everyone she knew. And of course she had so many stories of my Papa when he was a kid!

This is her narration of the first story in wrote -

#rememberingPapa

This is the first story Dad wrote when he was about 8 - as told by my Grandmother
There was once a Fox. He lived in a cottage near the woods. One day he decided to explore the woods. He took some bhakri(flat bread) and chutney and tied them in a bundle.

— Shefali Kulkarni (@Shefali__K) June 17, 2019

 

He tied the bundle to the stick, swung it over his shoulder and set off. He walked a little bit, sat down, opened his bundle and ate some bhakri and chutney.
Then he got up and walked a little. He felt hungry. He sat down and ate.

— Shefali Kulkarni (@Shefali__K) June 17, 2019

Then he came to the river. He sat down, opened his bundle and ate some bhakri and chutney. Then he walked some more and sat down and opened his bundle and ate. And oh! there was no bhakri and no chutney left.

So he came back home.

— Shefali Kulkarni (@Shefali__K) June 17, 2019

The bundle of food tied in a cloth is referred to as shidori in Marathi!

And then there was the story of how he had a little dent in his cheek just below his left eye!

Apparemtly hydrogenated vegetable oil used in cooking used to come in tins before they started using plastic. And Papa and his friend Madhu thought it was a great idea to make arrow heads with a discarded tin. Once they had a couple they decided to have a duel with their arrows. Unfortunately, Madhu managed to hit Papa with an arrow right under his eye! He screamed because of the pain and brought Grandma rushing to find them! I'm sure after what followed they would have been put off archery for a very long time!

Then there was one where she had made laddoos for Diwali and found the boys sitting under the bed with the tin and eating huge mouthfuls from it!

And one when she was proud of Papa... they stayed on the first floor of a large bunglow and the stair had a separate entrance. If someone came there and knocked they would not always hear it. As a child, Papa devised a pull bell that could be heard in multiple rooms of the rambling old house. One case where the inventions were beneficial! :)

These are other stories of simple games and pleasures kept us entertained and I never tired of hearing them!

 Penned on 8 June 2020

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