Papaya Leaves With The Holes

Walking down the road from my house to my uncle's, met some elders, says the usual formal greetings, few conversations and then I discontinued and went to my uncle's house. This is common, whenever I return back to my village. They shower their love towards me, maybe because of the status of my father in the village. They respect my father and an ideal son of a respected father, I used to greet them, talk with them whenever I return my village. So the story is...

Before that let me tell you about my village.

My village, situated near a riverside, has a large pond (Pokhar) where we, as kids, used to have a bath for hours, until maa didn't call us or grandpa didn't turn up for the bath. There was no existence of something called a drainage system, during my childhood, still, the drainage system is not proper.

This time, it was the rainy season when I returned my village. While coming back from uncle's house, the rain caught me midway. So I decided to stay outside someone's house until the rain was over.

One thing, as a kid, after the rain was over, we used to come out into the street, as no drainage, all the rainwater used to flow into the road, we used to a dam out of wet sand and usee to stop the water flow and store the water as we used to see in the river nearby. And when the water exceeds the level, we used to bring the papaya leaves, through holes in the leaves we used to let the water flow.

Now that the rain was over, I can see a few kids coming out doing the same but the papaya leaves were replaced this time. I can see some cut pieces of pipes, the pipes which are used for the inner electrical wirings. Watched for a few minutes or so, then I came back to my house. Mom was preparing tea, so I asked her to put some gingers into it.

While taking the sips, I was imagining, I wish I could allow my kids to do the same, but being a doctor and having a more strict wife, I could imagine the exact situation with minute details, could see the clear pictures of getting scolded by her along with the kids as kids, I left the thought with the last sip of the tea, then went to the field with dad, yo see the work of the workers.

While walking to the field, I could see my tummy misfitted in my body, and thought of doing some physical work in the field, so I took the spade and started preparing the field for the paddy, but half an hour was enough for a person like me to get tired. So I left the field, came back home, attended the meeting of village panch, have the dinner. By morning train, I returned back to the hospital, attended an emergency and in the evening, narrated the story to my kids. That's it.