A World With In A World

A piece of the world. A small miniature of this vast world was that little place in the middle of the city. Away from the city's rush close to the sea coast. When she reached that quiet community as a resident she was just six. She was quite old for her age, that's how she put it. Her grandmother, aunt, little brother and father made her a little family.

 She was destined to be an IAS officer, and that's what her parents aspired for her, although her father's second marriage ruined her parent's dreams and her own... as a matter of fact, most part of her life sprouted in and around that office quarters of her father. Then people loved to live there, they had clubs, libraries, programs, projects and celebrations...Those days selfishness did not breed in the human mind as now and society had a flow, a vibe of humanity ...

She learned dancing and the rest of the time she just read, she and her brother, the mother-less lads saw the world through windows, they studied in a different school only the rich could afford, so nobody befriended them during the early years of them being there.

This world grew in her, the stories of the people who lived there were the first stories her mind kept as sequels to write one day.

Their lives were in bag packs since the day she lost her mother. She was a nomad who moved around. Being in the post and telegraph quarters made not much difference She shifted houses as her father got promoted. So the stories she saw weaved and the characters in them kept changing.

She was fond of the tales the women told her aunt and grandmother while her aunt would detail her long thick black hair.

She would keep listening and when she had doubts ...that spoiled everything..her aunt was scared such stories are going to ruin her.

But she kept watching life happen around her. She knew who was in love with whom. Who had a breakup? She also knew when Manoj fell in love with Mr Menon's wife. She had her own theories of relationships and their depth and shallowness 

She would keep many such secrets and whenever she got a chance to mix with her playmates they would whisper. She learned about the unique roles people play in this world

Some were just busy with their own life . Some had financial issues. Some were leaders and always went out for reformation. Some settled conflicts. Some were funny and others rude. Girls went to colleges in flocks and boys roamed as Romeos there.

This world was a sub-set of the major set. People argued about who would rule the country and world and people clung to religion and often debated theirs is best.

Marriages and deaths were both dealt with in-group like any irony. The ironies Co existed in that community like the notes of music of the flowers of a garland. Diversity had its vices and virtues 

Some families fought and men spoke in slurred tongues drenched in alcohol, women cried and children yelled. Nights were often mixed with these ... the sound of rain and Breezes and crickets chirping and frogs crying accompanying the symphony.

Women became pregnant, they had an elegant whole process of delivery in the Indian way and they looked younger each time. She and her brother celebrated their birthdays by giving sweets to every single house. This made them feel they were quite important. 

There she learned how to give a speech, she was a good orator and she owe much to that little speck of universe a tribute, it made her a being sensitive to human inclinations. The abstract conviction of right and wrong and good and bad.

She drafted her first love letter there got punished for nothing there.

 She only wanted to draft it and it was never loved when she looked back.

She loved listening to waves and the night train pass by . She would tune the radio to listen to hindi songs and she cried and laughed like any being there. Her half-sister was born there and even though she hated her stepmom, she took care of her sister.

She emerged successful in classes there, she hid the pain of being bullied there, she gazed moon there and there she saw some take their own life and how mysterious was each person.

That was a time, a world within a world, life within life ..days that fragrance of jasmine and wild champak.