Autobiography - Part I
I was born on the 3rd of September, 1985 in the city of Patna in Bihar where my grandparents resided. From what I am told, I had got my arms and legs entangled while in my mother’s womb which lead to some complications. I however weighed 4 kgs on birth and people who came to visit often remarked that I was unusually tall for a new born. In fact, my feet hung out of the tray in which the nurse carried me immediately after my birth.
My birth was a joyous occasion in the family especially because it coincided with my mother’s birthday. My grandfather distributed ‘Rasgullas’ in every room in that hospital to which a lot of people innocently inquired “Is it a boy?” My name had been decided long before my birth. It was a suggestion from an aunt of my mother’s and since both my parents were fond of Tagore’s works, they decided to name me after his Nobel-prize winning collection of poems. Of course, as all Bengali families go, there has to be a pet name that has no relationship whatsoever with the real name and which often acts as a great source of embarrassment when one grows up. So, I too was given a pet name, a shortened form of the Russian word for “doll”. This was owing to the strong Russian influence in my family. My father and both his siblings had been educated in Moscow and my grandfather, a communist revolutionary often visited Moscow to deliver talks on communism. My grandmother of course had her own quirks. She wanted the names of all her granddaughters to begin with an “S”. So, she named me after a flower that blossomed in her garden that rainy season and repeated this story of my christening in the most dramatic fashion possible several times in the years to come. “That monsoon it rained heavier than in all previous years. And the beautiful white flower grew in full blossom everywhere. I brought in a huge bunch from the garden the day you were born and the entire house was filled with its fragrance!” she would say.
My grandfather’s house where I spent the first few months after my birth was an old house with huge rooms, polished red-stone flooring that stayed very cold in the summers and a huge garden and backyard. There was also a well in the middle of the garden and plants grew wild all around it. The words “Sarkar Avas” (meaning “Sarkar Mansion”) were inscribed on a broken stone on the gate. The first floor of the building was rented out to a library that I found out later never paid the rent; but my grandfather often borrowed books from there to read. I do not have any recollections of my relationship with my parents of that time. But I remember my parents, grandparents, aunt and cousin being around all the time. I must mention here that this is my paternal family I am talking about. I saw very little of my maternal family then and even in later years of my childhood. My cousin who was just 3 years elder had taken charge of babysitting me and was around me most of the time. She would stare at me for hours when I was sleeping and later tell everyone that she was taking good care of me.
After a few months, my parents returned with me to Ahmedabad where my father worked. We changed 2-3 homes before I turned 2. My father would never be satisfied with the place where we shifted. Within months of shifting to a new house, he would start finding faults with the house and start looking for a new place. Of these, I have distinct recollections of a colony called Ashok Nagar where we lived for a few months; probably because we’re still close to families who were our neighbors then. This is the house that I first learnt to walk in. There was very little furniture in that house and I ran from one end of the room to another when I first learnt to walk. I was a very jolly child then, always laughing. I had a peculiar way of jumping up and saying my name out loud whenever somebody asked my name. People enjoyed this. I was always a nocturnal creature refusing to sleep till late in the night which created a lot of trouble for my parents. My mother had given up her job then to spend time with me. But she was very happy about the fact that I could sit for hours on end without demanding her attention.
My birth was a joyous occasion in the family especially because it coincided with my mother’s birthday. My grandfather distributed ‘Rasgullas’ in every room in that hospital to which a lot of people innocently inquired “Is it a boy?” My name had been decided long before my birth. It was a suggestion from an aunt of my mother’s and since both my parents were fond of Tagore’s works, they decided to name me after his Nobel-prize winning collection of poems. Of course, as all Bengali families go, there has to be a pet name that has no relationship whatsoever with the real name and which often acts as a great source of embarrassment when one grows up. So, I too was given a pet name, a shortened form of the Russian word for “doll”. This was owing to the strong Russian influence in my family. My father and both his siblings had been educated in Moscow and my grandfather, a communist revolutionary often visited Moscow to deliver talks on communism. My grandmother of course had her own quirks. She wanted the names of all her granddaughters to begin with an “S”. So, she named me after a flower that blossomed in her garden that rainy season and repeated this story of my christening in the most dramatic fashion possible several times in the years to come. “That monsoon it rained heavier than in all previous years. And the beautiful white flower grew in full blossom everywhere. I brought in a huge bunch from the garden the day you were born and the entire house was filled with its fragrance!” she would say.
My grandfather’s house where I spent the first few months after my birth was an old house with huge rooms, polished red-stone flooring that stayed very cold in the summers and a huge garden and backyard. There was also a well in the middle of the garden and plants grew wild all around it. The words “Sarkar Avas” (meaning “Sarkar Mansion”) were inscribed on a broken stone on the gate. The first floor of the building was rented out to a library that I found out later never paid the rent; but my grandfather often borrowed books from there to read. I do not have any recollections of my relationship with my parents of that time. But I remember my parents, grandparents, aunt and cousin being around all the time. I must mention here that this is my paternal family I am talking about. I saw very little of my maternal family then and even in later years of my childhood. My cousin who was just 3 years elder had taken charge of babysitting me and was around me most of the time. She would stare at me for hours when I was sleeping and later tell everyone that she was taking good care of me.
After a few months, my parents returned with me to Ahmedabad where my father worked. We changed 2-3 homes before I turned 2. My father would never be satisfied with the place where we shifted. Within months of shifting to a new house, he would start finding faults with the house and start looking for a new place. Of these, I have distinct recollections of a colony called Ashok Nagar where we lived for a few months; probably because we’re still close to families who were our neighbors then. This is the house that I first learnt to walk in. There was very little furniture in that house and I ran from one end of the room to another when I first learnt to walk. I was a very jolly child then, always laughing. I had a peculiar way of jumping up and saying my name out loud whenever somebody asked my name. People enjoyed this. I was always a nocturnal creature refusing to sleep till late in the night which created a lot of trouble for my parents. My mother had given up her job then to spend time with me. But she was very happy about the fact that I could sit for hours on end without demanding her attention.
posted by moody_mermaid | 12:57 AM
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