My parents were not rich. But I never felt poor either.

Coming back wet from school.
Ma giving me hot milk, brandy and sugar after toweling my hair vigorously dry.

Joy beating up someone on the school bus and bloodying his nose,
(Guy called Merwyn. He would pinch so hard that it bled)
Because he pushed me.

Baba and my song.
‘Ek pyaar ka nagma hai … Maujon ki rawani hai …
Zindai aur kuchch bhi nahi …
Teri meri kahani hai.’

The plastic lizard on the electricity board
So we would not touch the switches or the fuse box.
That’s where my phobia started most likely.

Eating Chapati in next door neighbour, Chinga Aunty’s, house.
Still remember that steel container.
Ma says I would eat half and get half back for her always.

Thursday morning market trips with Baba.
Baba and I having tea with fisherwomen.
We were treated like celebrities.
Baba had that effect on women.
Baba letting me buy second hand books.
And then the secret sugar cane juice tryst which we never ever told Ma about.

Eating mallu food with my neighbours.
Becoming half a mallu myself.
Usha Didi. Shanta Didi. Gita Didi (who I still look out for). Unni Dada.

Listening to Ma tell stories.
My leg thrown over her from this side. Joy’s leg from the other.
Ramayan, Mahabharat. Byomkesh Bakshi. Ghost stories.
Occasionally we kicked each other to claim our place back.

Sitting on the sidecar of Baba’s scooter
and going all around Bombay waiting for Ma to finish her work.

Climbing trees and plucking guava and black jamuns.

Having 9 dolls.
Well, 8 actually.
One was my brother's. But it was the child in my third family.
And it broke my heart when he took it away at each fight.
I always said sorry so I could have it back.

Baba’s friend, Chandra Uncle, coming.
He took us for Cassata ice cream every time he came.

Baba carting all the building kids on his scooter and side car to school.
I used to feel so tripped.

Baba’s freedom fighter Mama visiting from London.
He used to take Joy and me for long walks.
I used to get tired at the end of it.
But just before he turned around to walk back,
he would buy us a pack of chocolate each. Our choice.

Joy and his dog army.
Champi. Panna. And all the other dogs in the neighbourhood.
He used to share his tiffin with them.
Then I had to share my tiffin during recess with him.

Dad’s tennis ball stuck on a palm tree.
It was his prize possession.
He had been forbidden from playing with it.
I had taken it to bribe the older boys, so they would let me bat too.

Playing Superman with towels wrapped.

My best friend Puppy dying suddenly.
I did not understand for a long time what happened
and where she went.

Buying and wanting only frilly dresses.
White. Pink. Yellow. Blue.
I was such a girl.

School Library Day.
Making all the people who don’t read, get the books I want to read.

Grafting all the rose bushes I could find
after reading about it in the school textbook.

Winning the white China marble.

Catching tadpoles in gutters.
We thought they were fish.

Rahul and Mukul's Mum's Diwali goodies.
Especially the karanjis.

Me fainting often at school and at play.
Felt terribly embarrassed every time it happened.

A tent made of saris.
We stayed all day in it.
The other neighborhood kids were ever so jealous.

Writing plays in Hindi and enacting it
with all the small kids in my building.
I had my own infantry who used to shadow me everywhere.
We used to take pangas with all the big kids around.

Rahul and I playing Rich and Poor all afternoon.

Also Rahul wanting me to solve dummy SSC question papers.
Because he loved finding my mistakes
and cutting huge marks for the smallest of things.

The 60 odd nannies that were inflicted on us.
Before Ma decided we could take care of ourselves.
Or rather I could take care of us.

Ma’s Doctor Mama coming.
He lived in this huge bungalow in Tala Park Calcutta.
He bought us lovely fairytale books.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Ukranian Folk Tales.

Horse Riding in Matheran.
Guide was my first horse.
Badal was my second.
Have a picture wearing a cowboy hat too.

Taking my ‘infantry’ to eat ice cream surreptitiously at a wedding hall.
Pretending to be a part of the wedding party.
We ate quite a lot of Tooti-Fruity ice cream that day.
I still like that flavour.

Burning my hair while blowing out the birthday cake candle.
Had to cut my hair really short for the first time.
But when I went back to school,
I learnt the importance of a good hair cut. ;-)
All the boys wanted to be my friend. Suddenly.

Getting pie-eyed drunk on Feni.
And cooking Dhansaak for eight people.
Must have been fifteen or so then.

It was sweet. All of this. Most of it.
The rich part.
The reason I did not feel poor maybe.