A Jar Of Ladoos

Richa met the brat for the first time when his mother knocked on their door and asked for some curd, with the brat tagging along. Richa’s mother was busy with some office work and so the conversation had been brief.

‘Welcome to Aspen Heights. Where were you earlier?’

‘Ghatkopar. How long have you been here?’

‘Oh! Donkey’s years. We moved in as soon as this tower was built. Sorry, today’s a crazy day at work. Sometimes I think it’s easier to commute to office and work there than work from home.’ Richa’s mother waved her hands in the air, as she was wont to do once in a while, her hair all over the place, her half-frown, half-smile, all over her face.

‘Ha ha! I understand.’ The new neighbour’s hair was perfectly oiled and combed and it looked as if it would stay that way all day. Richa was sure the new neighbour didn’t understand her mother. She seemed to be a homemaker, not an office-going, workaholic like her mother. The maid brought the curd in a small cup and handed it over.

‘This looks good. Thank you!’

‘What’s your name?’ Richa’s mom remembered to ask just in the nick of time even as the neighbour was walking out. It would have been so rude if she hadn’t.

‘We call him Raja. His real name is Ashwin.’

‘How old is he? He is so cute. Why is he hiding behind you?’ With that Richa’s mother turned her attention back to her laptop and the new neighbour had no choice, but to continue her exit, though she managed to say, ‘Raja turned five last month.’

Later that evening, when Richa was on the swing, the brat and his two sisters made a grand entry into the play area. The only other swing was broken and so the two sisters waited for Richa to finish and finish she did, even before she would have done otherwise, because she was eager to find out the names of the two girls and make friends with them. The elder one seemed to be about her age, though she was a bit smaller than Richa. No sooner had Richa got off the swing than the brat came from out of nowhere and the two girls made way for him. Not only that, as soon as he sat on the swing, they took turns pushing the swing for him. It was at that point that Richa passed judgement that Raja was a spoilt brat, though his two sisters were angels.

Richa walked towards the red slide and realized that the elder girl was following her.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Teena’

Richa waited for a few seconds for Teena to ask her name. When she didn’t, Richa volunteered ‘I’m Richa.’ ‘How old are you?’

‘I’m twelve.’

Richa was surprised, since she too was twelve and Teena was at least three inches shorter than her.

After a few slides in companionable silence, disturbed only by the cacophony of a bunch of annoying boys playing catch, Richa asked Teena, ‘which school do you go to?’

‘Emerald High School’

Richa almost wrinkled her nose in contempt. Surely someone who could afford to live inside their gated community could afford to go to a better school?

How old are you?’ Teena asked her.

‘I’m also twelve.’

Teena’s sister showed signs of tiring and Teena ran off towards her without an explanation just as Richa was about to tell Teena which school she went to.

Teena took over from her sister who walked over to Richa. ‘What’s your name?’ Richa asked her.

‘Sonia’

How old are you?

‘I turned ten last month.’ Sonia was much smaller than Teena and would easily have passed for a eight year old.

Sonia seemed to be much more tongue-tied than Teena and Richa did not even bother to ask her anything else, other than say, ‘come, let’s slide!’

‘Teena, Sonia, come inside. Bring Raja with you!’

Richa turned around and looked up to find Teena’s mother lean out of their third-floor window, about to repeat the instructions, which she did, in a louder voice.

Sonia abandoned the slide and scampered over to the brat, who showed no sign of getting off the swing.

‘Come on Raja, let’s go,’ Teena prodded her younger brother.

‘Nooo!’

‘Mummy is calling,’ Sonia cajoled him.

‘Nooo!’

Richa wanted to laugh. Two sisters begging and pleading with their younger brother to get off the swing and go back home. If the brat were her brother, she would have whacked him and made him obey her. Finally, the brat got off the swing and went inside, his sisters following him like royalty.

The next day morning, as Richa waited for her school bus in her pinafore and tie and sash and regulation black shoes and white socks, the brat and his mother joined her.

‘Isn’t this where Dhruve International’s bus comes?’

‘I think so,’ Richa said.

‘Yes, this is the spot,’ another mother, waiting with her eight-year-old volunteered.

Why did Teena and Sonia lie to me that they go to the Emerald High School, Richa wondered.

The mystery was solved when they met in the play area a few days later. ‘We go to the Emerald High School and Raja goes to Dhruve International.’ It didn’t matter. The three girls had become good friends, despite the presence of the brat and the lowly status of Emerald High School. They played together in the play area every day after school and for many hours on weekends. Richa’s parents were delighted that Richa had found new friends since there had been a dearth of twelve-year-old girls in the community and they were struggling to wean Richa off her tablet.

One Friday, when they finished playing, Richa invited the two sisters home the next day afternoon, to play in her room with her doll house and other toys. Richa was careful to not invite the brat, though she didn’t say so in as many words.

Teena, Sonia came over at the appointed time and they brought the brat with them. They didn’t even bother to apologise for his presence, as if it was something Richa ought to have expected. Nevertheless, things went well at first. Richa took the three kids to her room and gave the brat a rocking horse to sit, before wheeling out her doll house. The brat sat quietly on the horse for a while as Richa, Sonia and Teena started playing with the doll house. Then Richa’s mother brought them some cakes and sherbet, which the kids gobbled up. After that, things went downhill.

‘I also want to play with the doll house,’ the brat announced.

‘No, you stay on the rocking chair,’ Richa told him. The Brat was flummoxed.

‘Let me see,’ he waddled over.

 Richa hoped that Teena would control him, but she didn’t, giving her no choice, but to say, ‘Raja, you need to play in that rocking chair’, causing the Brat to burst into tears. 

Teena and Sonia quickly took their brother’s side. ‘Raja will not break your doll house. Please let him play with it, Teena asked Richa, who had no choice but to concede.

‘Careful, my daddy got it from America,’ Richa told the brat who seemed to think Richa’s father had gotten it for him.

When they finally left, the Brat had left smudge marks all over the doll house with his rough handling and Richa could swear that one of the hinges had actually come loose, though her mother laughed at her tears and said it had been loose for some months now and she would get a carpenter to fix it.

The Brat was planning to be a doctor, Richa found out accidentally when she overhead his mother chatting with someone else’s mother in the play area as she pushed the Brat’s swing. ‘Where are Teena and Sonia?’ Richa wanted to ask, but she didn’t. The mystery was resolved when Sonia poked her head through a window and waved at Richa. ‘Stay indoors, you!’ their mother screamed at Richa. ‘I’ve punished them both,’ she told the other woman she was chatting with. Richa was too upset to stay where she was and overhear more.

The next day when she met Teena and Sonia, she found out that they had been punished for eating laddoos which were meant for the Brat!

‘What do you mean, did you finish yours and then ate his too?’

‘No, we didn’t get any yesterday. Raja gets two laddoos everyday,’ Sonia explained.

‘What about you two?’ Richa asked.

‘We get one when we are good girls. Once in a while we get a laddoo,’ Teena replied.

‘May be once a week,’ Sonia chimed in.

‘When can we come to your house to play?’ Teena asked sweetly.

‘Sure, any time.’ No sooner had she spoken than Richa remembered that she didn’t want the brat playing with her doll house yet again and so she decided to not extend a specific invitation with time and date and Teena didn’t press any further. 

Three days later, from her window Richa saw Teena and Sonia in the play area and went down with a frisbee.

‘Flying disk?’

Instead of responding to the question, Teena announced, ‘Mummy asked you to come home and play with us.’ This was totally unexpected and a bolt from the blue.

‘Sure. Of course.’ Richa was at a loss for words.

‘Can you come this coming Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock?’ Sonia asked in a tutored tone.

‘Yes, I will.’

Nothing more was said on the subject. The three girls formed a triangle and threw the frisbee from one point to another. Teena was almost as good as Richa, despite her shorter height, and Sonia made up in spirit and enthusiasm what she lacked in ability. All was good until the Brat made his appearance in the play area wearing a garish red t-shirt and orange shorts. Richa noted thankfully that the swing was occupied by someone, or Teena and Sonia would have had to take turns to push his swing.

‘I also want to play.’ the Brat stood in front of Sonia and held up his hands.

No, you cannot play, you are only five, Richa was about to say, but stopped herself in time. 

‘Raja, you and I are a team,’ Teena told the Brat kindly and led him gently to her corner of the triangle.

Sonia held the frisbee and she threw it to Richa who caught it easily and in an almost single fluid motion threw it to Teena. It was a nice looping throw and Teena would have caught it easily if the Brat hadn’t held her right hand and insisted on trying to catch it. Teena ran after the rolling frisbee and caught it.

‘Let me throw,’ the Brat demanded, and Richa wanted to run over and punch him in his fat face. Teena however giggled and said, ‘here Raja, hold it like this, and thrrrowwww!’

Just as Richa expected, the Brat messed up and the frisbee fell a few feet away. Teena ran forward and picked it up and prepared to throw it to Sonia.

‘Let me throw,’ the Brat demanded once more and ran forward to grab the frisbee from Teena. Teena happily let go and the Brat threw the frisbee, this time, with better effect. As the frisbee fell a few feet in front of Sonia, Teena patted the Brat on his head and said, ‘you are getting better and better.’

After a few more of such pathetic throws, Richa threw in the towel. ‘Listen, you three play. I am going to the slides.’

‘No, don’t go,’ Sonia said, ‘it’s no fun if you are not playing.’

Teena seemed to understand why Richa was not keen on playing with them. ‘Raja, do you want to play on the swing? I will push you. Sonia, you play with Richa.’

The Brat weighed his options. ‘No, noo.’ I want to play deeskkk’

Richa was a trifle embarrassed. ‘It’s okay. Let’s all play frisbee.’

They continued playing and thankfully, after another five minutes and a few throws, the Brat tired of the game and announced, ‘I want to swing.’ Teena looked relieved and took to the swing and Richa and Sonia played frisbee happily. Ten minutes later, Sonia went over to relieve Teena who happily flipped frisbees with Richa.

On Saturday Richa went over to the neighbouring flat at the appointed time. Teena and Sonia were waiting to receive her, as was the brat. The brat’s welcome was the loudest and most hearty. In fact, to Richa's supreme annoyance, the brat behaved as if Richa was there primarily to spend time with him.

‘Let’s go to our room,’ Teena and Sonia announced in union and led Richa to a room which had two small tables, a few chairs and no other furniture. A pile of toys lay in a corner and next to it was a cozy, long rug. A dozen bulging cardboard cartons, each tied up neatly with choir rope, were stacked against the wall and these occupied most of the space in the room.

Shall we play Ludo? Teena asked and Richa nodded. There didn’t seem to be anything equivalent to a doll house or something equally worthy of respect.

The brat joined them in playing Ludo, with Teena rolling the dice for him when his turn came and Sonia moving his piece as required.

Shortly after they started playing, their mother made her appearance, bringing with her a tray that had some snacks, a big bottle of coke and a four empty glasses.

‘Richaaa, how are you doing my dear?’

‘I’m fine auntie.’

‘How’s your mummy? Does she work all the time?’

‘Yes, she does.’ Richa laughed politely as Teena’s mother poured out the coke into the glasses. Richa wanted to say that she didn’t drink coke, but decided not to. She was sure that Teena’s family didn’t understand organic foods and healthy eating, as her parents, especially her mother did. Also, she did like coke and so she decided to make an exception for the sake of her friendship with Teena and Sonia. After serving the kids, Teena’s mother left them alone and the four kids resumed their Ludo. 

Teena and Sonia seemed to have been taught by their mother to treat Richa exactly the way Richa had treated them when they visited Richa’s flat.

‘So, this is your room?’ Richa asked Teena and Sonia.

‘Yes!’

‘So, where do you sleep?

‘On the rug.’

‘All three of you?’

‘No, Raja sleeps with Daddy Mummy’

‘I sleep in thaaat room,’ the Brat pointed to the wall. Richa realized that room they were in was the second bedroom. Teena’s flat was also a two-bedroom flat like hers and had an identical layout. Since she was an only child, her parents could afford to give her a room of her own.

‘What are these?’ Richa pointed to the bulging cardboard cartons tied up with rope and stacked against the wall.

‘These are Daddy’s medicines.’

Richa looked bewildered. Teena’s father had to be really ill to need so many medicines!

‘Daddy supplies medicines to pharmacies,’ Teena explained and Richa slowly nodded with understanding. 

‘What does your daddy do?’

‘He is a chartered accountant’, Richa proclaimed proudly. ‘And my Mummy is a software engineer.’

‘Our Daddy travels a lot. He goes to Ahmedabad and Surat and Ludhiana and many cities.’ Teena looked as if she had the world’s best Daddy.

‘My Daddy used to travel a lot before Covid. Now he says, there is no need.’

Let’s play, Sonia said sensibly before either Richa or Teena could boast about their fathers anymore, picked up the dice and started to roll it. ‘I need a six, a six, a six.’

Soon they were immersed in the game once more, including the brat, who was fairly proficient in Ludo.

‘Raja, come here my darling!’

The Brat looked up at the three girls and then suddenly rushed out, almost scattering the ludo pieces.

‘Raja gets a laddoo in the afternoon and one after he comes back from play,’ Sonia informed Richa with a mix of pride and jealousy.

‘He also gets an egg every morning,’ Teena added.

‘And a glass of milk.’

Richa could not control herself any further. ‘This is so wrong. You should get all that Raja gets. If he gets an egg in the morning, you should also get an egg. If he gets a glass of milk, you should also get a glass of milk.’

‘But I don’t really like eggs or even milk,’ Sonia said.

‘But we like laddoos a lot.’ Teena’s tone was matter-of-fact.

‘Mummy keeps the key to the laddoo cupboard inside a jar in her bedroom. Raja doesn’t know that. If he knew, he would eat up all the laddoos.’

‘Yes, he would gobble them up. He really likes laddoos.’ Teena and Sonia laughed easily as they remembered how much the Brat enjoyed his laddoos.

Soon the Brat was back, wiping his face with the back of his hand.

‘How many laddoos did you eat Raja?’ Teena teased him.

‘Just one.’

‘Sometimes Raja grabs one more from the jar before Mummy can close the jar, right Raja?’

‘Sometimes I grab one more from the jar before Mummy can close the jar, yes’ the Brat repeated Teena’s words and giggled.

Richa picked up the dice and shook her fist before dropping the dice. ‘Four.’ She resolutely ignored the Brat and moved the ludo piece four steps towards its destination.

Three days later, Richa and Teena were on a bench next to the merry-go-round chatting, whilst Sonia was pushing the Brat on the swing. Richa had something important to say about one of her friends at school, who was throwing a very lavish birthday party next week and was inviting everyone, but many weren’t going, since the person in question had turned quite snooty of late and had snubbed many over the past one year and a quiet boycott was building up. Richa didn’t really support the boycott and she was actually planning to attend the birthday party, but had some sympathy for the boycott and wouldn’t mind if it partly succeeded, though she didn’t say so in as many words. Teena listened carefully and it seemed she understood most of what Richa was saying. Before Richa could fully explain the situation, they heard Sonia bellow, ‘your turn Teena.’ To Richa’s annoyance, Teena quickly got up and left, without any explanation and Sonia took her place.

‘What were you talking about?’ Sonia asked.

‘Oh nothing.’ Richa couldn’t bring herself to discuss such intricate matters with ten year old Sonia and she racked her brains for an alternate, suitable topic.

‘Will you be going to your grandparents’ place for your summer vacation?’

‘Yes, definitely.’

They saw Sonia’s mother come out of the building and go towards the swing, where she had a word with Teena. Then she walked towards Richa and Sonia and told Sonia, ‘I’m going to the market. I will be back in an hour. Mangala is inside the house and she needs to leave soon. You three go back home now.’

‘Okay mummy.’

‘I haven’t taken the keys. You all should go back right away. It’s about time too.’ The words grew fainter as the lady walked away.

Richa and Sonia walked towards the swing.

‘Did you get any laddoos to eat recently? Richa asked Sonia

Sonia giggled. ‘Yes, Teena and I got a laddoo each yesterday.’

‘You push for some time. Let me talk to Richa,’ Teena told Sonia, who hesitantly relived Sonia from the task of pushing the Brat’s swing.

‘He’s been on it for a while. Give others a chance.’ The speaker was a pesky eight-year-old boy whom Richa would have normally taken an instant dislike to, but didn’t, under the circumstances.

‘Okay. Raja, let’s go,’ Sonia said.

‘Noooo.’

‘Okay, two more minutes.

‘Noooo.’

‘Shall we?’ Sonia turned to Teena, interrupting the conversation between Richa and Teena.

Richa made a face and turned away.

‘Three more pushes and then we go,’ Teena told Sonia and the Brat.

‘Noooo.’

After two minutes, Teena and Sonia wrestled the Brat out of the swing, but moving him out of the play area was proving to be an uphill task. The Brat actually managed to scratch Teena on her cheek and Teena shrieked and her eyes welled up. Then Teena started to laugh through her tears as she and Sonia continued to struggle with the Brat.

Then Richa said, ‘I have an idea’ and proceeded to whisper in Teena’s ears. Teena listened intently, nodded, took a deep breath and then told the Brat, ‘Raja if you will be a good boy, I will tell you where Mummy keeps the key to the laddoo cupboard.’

The Brat could not believe his ears. He went quiet all of a sudden. Sonia looked on flabbergasted.

‘Mummy keeps the key to the laddoo cupboard inside the blue jar in your bedroom, the one next to the red timepiece.’

The Brat couldn’t believe his ears. Were his sisters playing a trick on him? However, the tip was good enough to be acted on. He quickly started to run into the building and pressed the lift button. By the time the three girls reached the set of lifts in the lobby, the brat’s lift had departed and Teena and Sonia burst into nervous peals of laughter.

The next day morning, Richa did not see the brat or his mother when she waited for her school bus. That evening, neither Teena nor Sonia nor the brat came to the play area and Richa became really nervous. The next day was no different. The day after, Friday, Richa saw the brat when she caught her school bus, but it was another week before Teena and Sonia came to the play area.

‘That was a really bad idea that you gave me,’ Teena accused Richa.

‘What happened?’

‘Raja got loose motion.’

Richa suppressed her laugher and asked, ‘is he better now?’

‘Yes, but, you shouldn’t have told me that.’

Who asked you to follow my advice? Richa wanted to ask. Instead, she asked ‘how many laddoos did Raja eat?’

‘Around ten.’ The two girls burst into brief laughter and Richa joined them nervously.

‘Mummy really beat us when she found out,’ Sonia informed Richa tersely, her eyes welling up again.

‘And we were grounded for a week.’

‘But I didn’t say it was your idea. If I had, she’d have’ Teena did not complete her sentence.

What would she have done? Richa wanted to ask. Eat me? She bit her tongue and remained silent.

‘I’m sorry that you were beaten and grounded. I was angry that your mother is so partial to Raja and so unfair to you.’

‘But Raja is wonderful,’ Teena said. ‘And all boys are treated like that. You would know if you had a brother,’ she added.

‘I think Raja is a horrible boy,’ Richa burst out.

‘Shut up, you,’ Teena and Sonia burst out.

Richa was shocked. She walked away from the two girls and they never spoke to each other again.