Chapter 1 - Incredible India…. NOT!
Khushi
I relaxed into the seat of my comfy business class seat in the British Airways and closed my eyes as the flight began to land into Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The flight bumped, which reminded me of cartoons in which a character fell onto the ground and did not just *splat* like people do in real life, but instead bounced up and down in slow motion before finally ACTUALLY falling COMPLETELY… You know what I mean?
The flight came to a halt and I looked out of the window. It was hot sunny day in March.
I had left India when I was in Grade 5 along with my Dad to London. Mamma and Akash had wanted to stay in India as Akash was reluctant to leave… Being the annoying touch-me-not that he was (but I love him in spite of that!) Dad and me shifted and I came to India every year for vacations till I was in Grade 8, but then it stopped suddenly. So it'd been three years since I'd been to India.
Dad would visit India sometimes to visit Mamma and Akash, but hardly took me along… what with the academic pressure…! This time, when I was moving back to India permanently (maybe) he did not even accompany me. He had a meeting, so he had dropped me off at Heathrow Airport.
To be completely honest, I loved my life in London. So why was I here? Well, I had just completed tenth grade in London and Dad had to leave to Qatar. After Googling up on that, I realized that only an idiot would go to Qatar after living in England. So here I was… in Incredible India…! Not that I really mind, but I would miss my life there…. I had known in the beginning of my tenth grade that I'd be moving to India for eleventh and twelfth and Mamma had told me to get the best grades I can as getting admission in Eleventh wasn't that easy… So going to India earlier than the start of the academic session meant that I'd have time to prepare for the upcoming curriculum. (Oh no, I am not a nerd… But I think Mamma wants to turn me into one) And of course, she was planning to put to use the influence of her father (my, Nanu Devashish Gupta)
Ahh, and that brings us to an interesting topic…
My Nanu and his best-friend-forever –Deven Raizada-had come to Hyderabad in search of jobs back in their youth. They set up a book-publishing company, which is now famous as The G&R Publications with national fame.
They had purchased independent houses next to each other's and were neighbors for years. But then, Purnima Badi Ma married Deven Raizada's eldest son Ashish Raizada. Their friendship was stronger than ever and now they were family! So they had combined both their lands and gotten a huge mansion built.
Then Ashima Badi Ma married Ashish Bade Papa's younger brother Aniket Raizada
My Mother- Garima Gupta Mallik- was the youngest of four siblings, and the oldest was Arjit Mamu, who passed away when I was in fourth. He had married my Dad's elder sister Madhumati Mallik (now Gupta) And then of course, my Mother married my Dad Shashank Mallik…..
By now, there were so many couples that *ahem* 'privacy' was required (lack of which meant me and my cousins would have never seen the face of Earth) So Devashish Nanu and Deven Nanu (he isn't exactly my maternal grandfather, but we were related as he was the father-in-law of two of my aunts) got apartments built with one flat for each of their sons (not daughters as they would leave their families post-marriage) Besides, there were mostly inter-marriages between the families, so all were in the same place… R&G Enclave was where they all lived, and soon me.
Then there is FaceBook , the greatest invention (and worst according to elders) of the 21stCentury. So I have been touch with all my cousins and the Raizadas, excepting my brother's best friend-cum-cousin Chhote Raizada. I wonder if he is still called Chhote… I mean really, he is probably in eleventh grade too, and like most boys of eleventh grade, he was probably a humongous tall redwood tree and it would be plain freaky to call him Chhote… Maybe they changed it to 'Bade' now… And maybe it would be Chhote itself if he was shorter than me (which would be weird. I feel weird when a guy of my age is shorter than me…) Actually, I am sure he had another name, but almost everyone I knew called him Chhote, so I actually forgot his real name. Akash used to call him 'dude' most of the times or 'man'. So yeah, I don't really remember.
My Chhote-Bade thoughts were broken with a 'Thank you for choosing British Airways' which in Air-plane speak meant 'We've had enough of serving you food, now please get out'
*
After collecting my luggage, I came out of the airport and was greeted warmly, no, HOTLY, by the hot 'summer-is-approaching' winds of Hyderabad. I was to be picked up by Ashish Bade Papa.
I crossed the small drive-thru kind of road which was at the entrance of RGIA and looked at the white taxis one level below me. I drank in the beautiful hills in the distance and the greenery as far as my eye could see. Flower beds lined the lawns and footpaths that I could make out from where I stood. From here, I could see the road that lead out of the airport premises, long and clean with colorful flowers and well-trimmed hedges and tree lining it all the way… Sigh, India was incredible indeed… I can see why my grandpas fell in love with!
*
What in the whole wide world did my grandpas fall in love with in this congested, dirty, highly polluted, scattered-with-buffalos-and-dogs city!
"Ash BP put on the AC please? I want to roll my windows up! This area stinks of dung!"
'Ashish Bade Papa' was too long for my liking… So I just called him Ash BP. He didn't mind… In fact, he thought it was cool…!
Ash BP laughed. "Well Kitty, this is India. You need to get used to it… The AC is not working properly!"
Kitty. Sigh. I have such a beautiful name… Khushi Mallik. But no… They have to call me Kitty. Reason behind that name? (I honestly don't believe this story)
Apparently when I was learning to speak as a baby and could understand what is being said to me, Papa had called me cute. Soon after, we were walking on the roads when a white cat crossed our paths and Mamma had exclaimed "What a cute Kitty!"
And apparently, I was frustrated at the cat being called cute and so I had asked confusedly "I cute. Kitty Cute. Is I Kitty?"
All the elders called me Kitty, whereas my cousins and friends had different nicknames for me. You shall see as soon as we reach R&G.
What's unbelievable is why a baby who was just learning to speak would be jealous of a freakin' cat!? I personally think that the reason I am called Kitty is because of my obsession with Hello Kitty stuff. Oh well, whatever. Better get used to it. In fact, I think I already did… But I can't take it when my cousins call me Kitty.
We were at a red signal and Ash BP said we'll reach R&G Enclave in half-an-hour. So with the dry March sun falling on my face, I dozed off.
I was startled awake by a yucky smell and as my eyes fluttered open, I saw a huge garbage truck ahead of our car, barely covered by a blue tarp and I could see some gooey-thing dripping from the corner of the truck.
Trying not to belch, I put my head out of the window to clear my head. I turned my head to the right and looked straight into the face of a black buffalo that had a running nose and was moving its mouth as if it was chewing gum.
I yelped and Ash BP laughed "Kitty, put your head back where it belongs… You have a lot to learn about this place!"
Lot to learn indeed…..! Sigh.
Once we got into the main city, the situation got a bit better though there was still congested traffic that moved as if it had lost its way or something… The continuous honking got to my head and I bit my lip to refrain from screaming at the mo-bike guy next to our car that all the bloody honking in the world wouldn't get the traffic moving and only the red- turning -green could move the traffic. Jeez, didn't he learn anything at school!
We moved through jam-packed main roads and I saw the sign 'Uppal', meaning R&G Enclave was ten minutes away.
*
R&G was located in Habsiguda near the Osmania University Campus. It was a four storey building located in Street No.8 of Habsiguda, opposite a GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corp.) park.
We entered the gully that housed R&G in Street No.8. I knew because I could see the dome of the temple of Shiv-Vishnu in the start of the gully.
As we turned into the gully, we could see R&G immediately. R&G was a beautiful pale cream building. It was well designed and anyone could see that it was built with great care. On one side of R&G was covered with a creeper with beautiful ink-blue flowers and spring-like tendrils that stuck out here and there. The compound wall wasn't very high and was white in color with yellow ellipses on it. The gate was wrought-iron and next to it was a small security cabin.
R&G was the last building on the left side of the gully, and behind it was the Mysterious Grey Wall. In front of R&G, was the GHMC Park. The park was adjacent to the Mysterious Grey Wall. Behind the park, I could see a large dump of garbage. I sighed internally… This was going to take forever to get used to after coming from London.
Adjacent to R&G, were two independent houses. I think they are family-friends. I don't really remember quite well. These houses were located between R&G and the temple, opposite to which was my future school Benson's High. There was a small General Store next to the park.
The rest of the area was filled with an array of small independent houses, and that seemed to accentuate R&G's grandeur..
As we drove into the cellar-parking of R&G, the watchman Ramesh Bhai saluted to Ash BP and smiled at me. All the flats inside were separate, but the specialty was that all flats on each level were connected by a common balcony
I looked around apprehensively, and swatted at a few mosquitoes and shooed away some flies. I helped Ash BP pull out my luggage and the two of us headed for the elevator.
The Ground, The First, The Third and The Fourth Floors had apartments and the Second Floor was what everyone called the Commons. The Commons was like the Common Room we see in Harry Potter. It was more like a GIANT living room with a long, REALLY long dining table where all of them us gathered for get-togethers or dinners or whatever. Each floor had 3 apartments. The entrances to all apartments faced a common stairwell that consisted of a spiral stair-case. The elevator was on one end.
Arnav
I stood in the corridor in front of the main door of my house on Second Floor , facing the stairwell, talking to Akash who was on Third Floor above the Commons. Akash was my best-friend ever since I remembered and I could see the excitement written all over his face at the return of Upchuck.
Yep, the alien from Ben 10 that anything and everything. Akash's twin Khushi 'Kitty' Mallik was just like that. I remember Garima Aunty (She was my Chachi's sister, but I called her Aunty itself) spanking her for eating mud when she was five, and the paper-eating competition that the two of us had when were six (she won of course) Besides mud and paper, she even ate pencil-graphite, chalk, eraser, thermocol and cardboard. And when it came to REAL food, there was nothing Khushi didn't eat except for non-veg.
Khushi had her vengeance by giving us nick-names too of course… Akash was Grey Matter (The same nerdy alien from Ben 10) and I was Scar (The villain from Lion King because I had scar too above my left eye. I had pointed out that Scar has it ON his eye and I have ABOVE it, but she had said that a scar is a scar no matter where and no matter how large.
"Akash, when is she gonna be here…?" I called.
Akash was standing in the third floor, over-looking the stairwell too and as Akash was about to answer, the elevator pinged. Akash jumped and I saw him turn towards the elevator and screech "Upchuck!!!"
And then I heard her voice. It reminded me of bells. "Hello to you too GreyMatter!" I could hear the smile in her voice.
Dadi would surely hold a dinner in the Commons today.
As I turned to leave, I saw Akash ushering her inside the house and all I could see of her was her blue tank top and bouncing curls of her brown hair, highlight mildly with a slightly light shade of brown.
The last thing I heard before entering the house was her laughter.
I wondered if she was as bubbly as I remembered her? As talkative…? As stubborn…?
Khushi and her family had moved into R&G six years back. Of course, we had known each other despite that because the Malliks used to come visit Madhu Aunty and Deven Nanu. I and Akash had become best of friends and Khushi was close enough to talk to comfortably. After they had moved in six years back, Khushi left for London a year later.
Her best friend was Lavanya Sharma, Mano Mami's elder daughter. But everyone liked Upch- er, Khushi. She had been the liveliest of all and had such contradicting personalities that she was difficult to figure out. Let me tell you that her personality was like both Yin and Yang existed in her itself.
For one, she was nerd who was filled with fun (She never accepts that she is a nerd!) and though she had a short fuse which blew even if touched, she was a very sweet and kind person. The level of immaturity she showed sometimes would be shocking to someone who had seen the mature side of her. It was as easy to make her angry as it was to make her happy. She was extremely sensitive and an emotional person mentally, but she was mentally very strong in another way. Her klutzy nature was the only thing (other than her habit of being a food-freak) that didn't have an opposite nature. And physically, she was very frail. Even more so in the last few years of what I had seen of her during vacations. London weather I suppose?
Oh and no, I'm not an obsessed stalker. We just knew each other for quite long, and she was a topic that Akash was highly interested in talking about. He loved her a lot, and I knew he missed her. There was a time when both of them were so obsessed about the cartoon Ben 10 (Akash tells me that she still is) that they had given nearly everyone in R&G a Ben 10 name. It was their personal code, and I would lose my mind when they talked in their Ben 10 language. In fact, Khushi was pretty much a cartoon freak and had this 'thing' for Hello Kitty.
Anyways, fast forward to future….!
Khushi's return had everyone excited. I could hear Mom talking to Dadi excitedly, and both were debating on what to get cooked for the dinner.
I had a sudden urge to tell Mom to fry some Paper, garnish it with mud and serve it alongside some rubber. She would gladly eat it. I couldn't help but laugh at the time when (in Summer of course) Dadu had ordered for some mud to be put in R&G so that trees could be grown and the three-year-old foodie she was, she had assumed it to be chocolate and swallowed mouthfuls of it. Later, she had concluded that the 'No-sweet-chocolate' was yummy too…!
Was she still that crazy?
I looked at the time and realized that it was time…. All us kids-who-are-not-exactly-kids had wanted to meet up in the Commons to talk to Khushi before the evening dinner. Everyone readily agreed…. Khushi was home at last!
It was of course, initiated by Akash. He had told us that his sister was terrible at socializing and that he wanted her to get rid of the unease before we all came together.
I had always envied Khushi for having such an awesome brother… Though her point of view was different… She was envious that I had a sweet elder sister… If only she knew! How 'sweet' Di could get sometimes!
Well, both were envious of each other so we were even!
Sooo? How was is it hm? Leave feedback please?
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