Lost Photographs...

Summer, the only time they visited their granny’s place. This was her last summer vacations. Riddhima had completed her course in psychology and was setting foot into the world as a professional, right after this summer.

This wasn’t surely Rhea’s last summer vacation, as she had still three years of her architecture left. She was excited as all cousins from Kolkata were coming too, this time. She and her sister were on a drive with no dad or mom, which was the case usually. They were almost in Udupi and just about another half an hour drive left. They were both sick of sitting for more than an hour driving through the partly constructed roads, taking diversions and honking huge trucks and swift moving buses.

***

“Did you keep the charger and camera??” Rhea remembers all of a sudden, being the younger one.

“You remember now, huh?? I did keep the charger and why camera? You’ve kept the Ipad in the bag, right?” Riddhima said honking and driving past a couple of rickshaws.

“Yeah, I’ve kept the Ipad”

They reach Manipal and they stop by to get a break. From here begins the journey into the village. It was around six kilometers, but the roads weren’t pleasant and as a result they decided to take a break.

***

After driving through the muddy turf roads, they had finally made into the tranquil village of Devasyabail. Out from the city and the inexhaustible variety of it, here was a village that was peaceful and calm since they’re childhood. Life wasn’t easy out here, but was simple. The lush green fields, farmers and their women working in those fields, the cattle’s moving around lazily, chicken’s pecking around looking for grains and then the village house that was almost a hundred years old. It was their grandfather’s dad’s house. The house was simply spectacular, a treat to the eyes. The red tiles on the roof and the red oxide on the floor complimented each other. The doors and windows had the ancient Indian touch unlike the Greek influence that was observed in the cities, especially in the pillars. The background had a few coconut trees posing well off to come in picture as you enter the compound. The front yard had a spread of areca nuts placed there for drying as it was one of the major produce and a dried coconut branch which would be present usually just for the rustic effect. As they entered the sun was adding the special effects as they capture their first click of this summer.

They call on to check with their cousins.

“Hello”

“Hello, yeah we reached. Where are you guys??” Riddhima asks.

“Hey, sorry flights are cancelled due to some threat. I think we’ll be reaching day after tomorrow”

“What??”

“Yeah sorry”

 “Whatever”, she cuts the call.”They’ll be reaching the day after”, she says to Rhea.

“What??”

***

This was quite a special place for both of them. Swimming in the lakes, getting dirty in the fields, playing cricket, running around, listening to stories from their grandmother, going for a ride on grandpa’s shoulder as kids; it was all memories. It’s almost been a decade since their grandpa had passed away. Now they had grandma, uncle and his wife and cousins who are going to be a couple of days late. It was almost seven and they were sitting out in the front yard as they’re granny scans Rhea’s hair with her, experienced fingers looking for lice and oiling them too for a bath later as Riddhima was on the line next. Grannies always preferred the younger ones as they were closer to them and Riddhima kept complaining.

They all took their baths and then started looking at some photo albums. Some pictures from their brother’s engagement that happened recently and some old pictures. There was one thing that Rhea and Riddhima were always curious as they were growing up, “How did they look when they were babies??” There wasn’t a picture of their childhood. Their dad would say that there was one in granny’s place and then they would forget when they were here as they had something or the other that would keep them distracted. This time, no cousins, no power as it went off a few minutes after both had freshened up. Ipad and their phones were low on charge. They started searching for their baby pictures.

***

“I’ll look in the attic. You look around here”, said Riddhima. The web filled attic had nothing but antiques in a bad shape and rats moving swiftly around which made Riddhima get down from there as soon as possible. Rhea had no luck whatsoever. Noticing their desperate searching operation, granny got a bit curious, “What are you both looking for??”

“Our old pictures, when we were kids?? Dad used to say they were here”, said Rhea.

“I don’t think they are here. Your dad wasn’t a big fan of taking pictures. There was a few taken by your uncle. But you both were really cute and chubby kids and all your pictures were taken by friends, family and neighbors. I remember one copy I had given to… who’s that??” Granny was thinking hard.

“Think granny, think” said both of them simultaneously.

“I had given it to Shahana. Do you remember her? She would make the best biriyani. She had asked for a picture when you were kids and I had given it to her. She would get it always when she came to give her special biriyani. Even your grandpa loved them” and she was lost in thought and moved into her bedroom.

“Granny…” Rhea tried to stop.

“Let her sleep, we’ll talk to her tomorrow. She must be tired, even we are. Tomorrow we’ll go in search of Shahana aunty and take a look at ourselves”, said Riddhima.

***

There was a sense of excitement and worry in both of their heads as they went to sleep. What if she had lost the picture?? Why didn’t dad take any pictures?? What if she is dead now?? Will we ever know the way we were, the way we looked as kids?? Questions kept circling like tweety birds around our head. They were tired and all these questions made their head heavy and they tried to sleep.

***

They didn’t need an alarm, the cry of the rooster was on time and they woke up. They didn’t have a perfect sleep; the red oxide floor was too cold, there was no sound coming from the fan (as there was no power) and they had unanswered questions spinning around.

Granny was sitting outside and she was feeding the roosters. Riddhima and Rhea went to her with their unanswered questions;

“Granny, where does Shahana live now??” asked Riddhima.

“I don’t know exactly. She used to live here, in our village. Now she lives about 20 kilometers from here, in the Shivalli village. Her husband owns an estate there, they say. I have never been there”, replied granny.

***

Riddhima and Rhea were all set to leave. It was their own little adventure of this summer, as they didn’t have anything to do and cousins weren’t arriving until tomorrow. With no clear instructions about where exactly Shahana lived, they knew twenty would end up being a much lot than that. Granny had packed her some of her homemade Chakkulis, which she loved.  

They left Devasyahalli with a hope of finding their only picture whose location was known, but existence was uncertain. The road to Shivalli was even worse. There were huge machinery beside the road to make new ones, but the work just hadn’t started. It felt like making a journey in a boat. Slowly and steadily she kept on driving, as they reached a sign saying Shivalli ’15 kms’ towards the left. It was narrow lane to fit only one car, with a hope that no heavy vehicle comes from the other side, they drove. After driving for a couple of kilometers further they were confused; a road leading straight and another going right. No shops, no sign of any human being around, only dust. They get out of the car, hoping for luck.

“Why is it so deserted here??” asked Rhea. “Hope we are in the right track”, she added. And then a young boy holding a stick comes from the road going straight.

“We want to go to Shivalli, how do we go??” asked Riddhima.

“Oho, even I am going in that road only. I have to go only another three kilometers. I’ll join you and give you instructions”, said the boy.

“Ok”, they said and they got back on track.

They took the right and went on for a kilometer, when they were “intercepted by a construction truck. Riddhima’s worst fear had become a reality. By now they had both tied a cloth across their nose and Riddhima listened closely to what the truck driver was explaining to her. She did so with gentle pace and took about ten minutes to drive through. Half an hour later, the boy’s destination had been reached.

“Thank you very much. You have safely dropped me to my destination. Now you go straight for another ten minutes, then take a left. You get a temple ask there, they will tell you the rest. But you take the road leading to left again, then about three kilometers and ten minutes walk as car might not go in those roads”, he said and departed.

“Ok, did you write it down sis”, asked Rhea.

“Yeah, in my mind palace”

“Hmm”

There was no clear radio and they didn’t have any good cassettes or CD’s. So they played on the phone. They reached the temple and now they were delayed by the traffic block. The cars were stagnant, not moving at all. It moved little by little

It took another half an hour to get past the block. They took the left and then they reached their final destination. It was a beautiful place, a treat to the eyes. The hills in the background, they could see a lake at a distance and this got them excited, though their questions weren’t answered yet. The journey was one of the most irritating ones as long as Riddhima’s driving experiences were concerned.

***

The house was beside the lake, it felt like they were teleported to God’s own country. It was an old house, just like the one, only theirs was a bigger version. They entered the front yard and it was all same; the dried areca nuts, the unwanted coconut branch and a few roosters. The lake looked so green, because of all the greenery around. The door was open, and they knocked on the door as they kept looking around. An old lady walks out from inside; a bit bent wearing a loosely held saree. She was in her eighties and her hair had all turned white.” Yes”, she said.

“We are Laxmi’s grandkids”, said Riddhima.

“Oh!! Laxmi’s grandkids! Come in, come in”, she said.

They enter and notice a long gun on the wall; they saw a huge framed picture of a baby and small photos of the same around it. They were looking for their own and they see this huge picture. They give her the Chakkuli, she says, “Thank you”.

“Who is that in the picture?” enquired Riddhima.

“That’s my granddaughter’s kids. I have a grandson who’s yet to be married lives here with me” replied Shahana.

“Oh!! By any chance do you remember an picture my granny gave to you, of us??” asked Rhea nervously.

She thought about it and said, “No, I don’t think so. Is that why you came here for??”

“Yeah actually we did”, said Rhea with a smile.

“Oh, I’m sorry them I can’t help you. At least you can taste my biriyani today. Eat it, it’s almost lunch time. I’ll pack some for your granny. She loved it and your grandpa too”, said Shahana thinking about the old days and describing a few stories too.

Rhea and Riddhima were lost in the journey they made, their questions weren’t yet answered. They were in a state of slight shock and couldn’t enjoy the biriyani to the fullest. The just wanted to leave as soon as possible. They wanted to ask again, “Are you sure you don’t have any picture of our’s in this house??”, but they resisted.

They said their goodbyes and were about to leave, when a man stops them, “Wait!!” It was a young man’s voice, of a man in his late twenties. They look back and he walks towards them and says, “Hi!!”

 “Hi, I heard what you said to my granny. I was in the kitchen and left from the backdoor once you started eating. You know these situations when you’re out with a girl who’s your friend or you have a crush on her; in my case that is. You like spending time with them. You keep talking to them, move around and you don’t remind yourself to take a picture. You live in that moment, that moment is in your head, the mind palace. You’re lost in the moment. Maybe that’s what your dad was, lost in the moment. His initial days with you, he loved you a lot. Two daughters, three beautiful women at home; he was lost in the moment and he never captured any because he lived in it and the happiest days of his life passed day by day and he can access it whenever he needs to. I think if you want to see those pictures go to him, rather than travelling around. No one explains your beauty, those moments better than him. Sometimes you might fail to find yourself in the picture”, he said.

“Wow!!” said both of them in awe.

He walked into the house and parted with a smile to both of them.

“Do you think dad was so dramatic??” asked Rhea.

“Not as much as him. He might have been a bit, you do know how mom and dad got married though it was arranged”, said Riddhima with a wink.

“Yeah, I know that. You make it sound dramatic, maybe it wasn’t that much”, said Rhea.

“He is a dramatic person and I love him for that. We’ve always irritated him for not taking pictures, but never asked him the reason”

“Yeah, we should talk to him”

They walked a bit and sat by the lake.

“By the way, he’s cute”, added Rhea.

“Yeah a bit and quite a philosopher, also makes dramatic entrances too”, said Riddhima.

“We never asked his name. Now we’ll never know. He did use a couple of words that you used a bit earlier today”

“What’s that??”

“Mind palace”, she said with a laugh.

“Hahaha. It’s ok. Now we better leave, you know the journey we have to make back. Hope we get a good sleep and power at least today”

“Yeah, hope for that. We didn’t get the pictures in any case”

***