Bubble Burst

End of a 400-year-old curse with the birth of a child in the royal family of Mysore triggered an innocent but a funny childhood memory of mine.

My childhood is from the pre-television period when our lives were leisurely and hassle-free; we as children enjoyed unadulterated childhood and our parents, as adults, spent a lot of quality time with us. When we were little children, we grew up on a heavy dose of mythological movies, stories from the Chandamama magazine and our daily story sessions with the grandmother and parents. To us, God looked like N T Rama Rao and kings looked like N T Rama Rao and Rajkumar!

My father would often tell us anecdotes from his adventurous childhood or his own made-up stories. One story I remember very well was a serial titled, "The Bittergourd (design) Necklace"! Would you believe, every evening we would wait for that wonderful time after dinner when he would regale us with that never-ending story? (Was the concept of today’s never-ending TV serials hacked from here? ) He would purposely delay the session to increase our curiosity; he would then ask us some questions about the older episodes and the point at which the previous episode was stopped! Once we satisfied all his queries, while chewing paan, he would regale us with the next episode! This particular story had the king, queen, intelligent ministers, wicked ministers, troublesome relatives, giants, monsters and also plenty of weird characters like the one-eyed giant, tallest man, thumb-sized man, Feather-light princess and so on. Huh! Just like the present day’s Harry Potter or The Lord of the rings! My elder sister, who is older to me by a year and a half, would also tell me stories she learnt at school. I remember her telling me the famous story, Kabuliwala. Now you can very well imagine how I lived then, in a fantasy world.

When I was six and a half, my younger sister was born. To give some hassle-free time to mom, my father used to take us for long walks in the evenings and during such walks, he introduced us to the KA language i.e., adding KA between every sound of the word we spoke! Like, Geeta would be KA Gee KA Ta. We had become experts in this secret language in a matter of few days.

I was seven when mom & dad planned a three or four day trip to Mysore. Before the trip, they had told us a lot about Mysore and its (titular) King Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar. Having heard of the grandeur of Mysore Palace, the grace of the king, Brindavan gardens and the zoo, our excitement and anticipation knew no bounds. The storybooks that were read to us always highlighted the prosperity of the bygone era as, “During XYZ’s reign, precious stones and jewels were sold on the footpath, along with exquisite silks and other expensive artefacts.” I innocently believed these things, in toto and I had quietly planned to buy some jewellery and silks of the ancient times, in Mysore, the king's city!

We travelled by train to Mysore; that was a new experience for us! I clearly remember many moments of this journey. My parents were busy through the journey with my younger sister who needed regular milk, change of clothes and so on, as diapers were unheard of in those days! To keep my elder sister and me engaged, my father had invented a few methods! Our KA language skill was fully utilized during the journey! As it is we sisters would endlessly chat in the KA language and dad prompted us to tell stories to each other in that language. The competitive spirits made us rattle in that new secret language endlessly attracting the amused looks of our co-passengers who failed to understand or comprehend our excited chatter! When I heard the Kilikili lingo in Bahubali 1, I was reminded of the KA language we spoke as kids! My father had also coined a catchy slogan to match with the rhythmic sounds of the train and had told us to repeat it looking at the tracks! What a way to keep the children engaged! Today's children are smarter and would frown at such mindless activities, but to us, it was fun as we belonged to an innocent age.

During the journey, we were ravenous, demanding snacks constantly. Our parents had carried plenty of fruits and snacks to keep us satiated through the journey. The best part of the journey was the food our mother had packed; poori, potato-onion curry and Mosaranna.(seasoned curd rice) I can still recall its flavour and taste, and the way we had relished every morsel of it!

At last, we reached our dream destination, Mysore.

I was hugely disappointed, the moment we landed in Mysore. I saw that the roads and footpaths in Mysore looked exactly like the ones in Bangalore! Plain mud and sand footpaths! Where were the fabled street-side stalls selling the precious jewellery? My fantasy world had crashed and I remember expressing my utter displeasure with uncontrolled flow of tears and I bawled aloud refusing to move a step ahead! I remember well how my father had pacified me in his inimitable style by showing the horse carriages (there were plenty of them in those days) and asking me to count the number of carriages that passed by. He also motivated me to stay alert to spot the king’s chariot which could pass by, anytime!

Soon I got diverted by the beautiful sights and sounds of Mysore. We visited the majestic palace (minus the elusive royals!), the colourful and mesmerising musical fountains at the Brindavan gardens, the serpentine road to the Chamundi hills (Dad had bought fancy pens and bangles for us here) and the zoo. I was seeing the tiger, giraffe, white peacock and the chimpanzees for the first time at the Zoo. I got to shake hands with a baby chimp which was riding a tricycle! What a memorable moment that was!We later visited the Devaraja vegetable market, where I got to see big capsicums and lots of other vegetables! I have faint memories of this place. It was yet another first experience of visiting a huge market.

Well, once the main attractions were seen and experienced, the disappointment of not finding the jewellery and the precious stones on the roadside stalls remained and not getting to meet the charismatic royals made it worst! I couldn’t recover from that disappointment.

Since my imaginary bubble had burst, I lost total interest in the rest of our sightseeing visits to Nanjanagudu and other places. I wonder how I must have dragged myself through the rest of my journey with a broken heart! I can’t recall the return journey even a bit. I guess I was too disillusioned to remember anything further.

To this day, I remember all the sights and sounds of Mysore very clearly only up to our visit to the Zoo and after that, it is a total blank!


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@ChennaiExpress

Thanks. "I think families and people can benefit with more face-to-face interaction than watching TV." This is so true. Today due to various compulsions parents are not in a position to spend a lot of time with children, playing the role of primary educators and maids, nurseries, TV and electronic media play that role. I guess it makes a lot of difference in bonding.

 

Jayasala ma'am,

I too have heard of the variants of the KA language. I believe these activities help to keep children sharp and alert. Without the help of these tricks, my parents would have found it so tough to manage three children, luggage and travelling by Public transport.
"Now when I read Rasalila or Ashtapathi or any chapter about Krishna, only the open drain comes to my mind." Sad but true! I agree with you.
we read "Grecian Urn" in high school, what a wonderful description, I was so tempted then to physically see it! And yes, I have read the story you have quoted and its many variants. Imagination is creativity and with its help, many things can be enjoyed sitting right in our arm-chair! Thanks a lot mam, for a detailed response.

 

@Cheeniya Sir,

Thanks a million for your wonderful remarks. I am humbled by your generosity.

 

@Frangipani
Thanks a lot for your comments and for sympathising with 'the little innocent Geeta' Life was indeed simple and pure, I am sure most seniors on this forum would agree with me.