Oct 2nd in our house was not remembered or celebrated as the birthday of the Father of our nation. It was the most precious day for us, especially for Dad celebrating his daughter’s birthday with great joy. We always had a cake for birthdays and Mom made special dishes and we invited our close friends and family. I would take pictures with my AGFA camera and we always laughed at my skills as some pictures showed only the hand of the person feeding her the cake, or partial head shots and so on. We called her Jagathi (The World), event though her actual name was Jagaddhatri named after the Goddess Jagaddhatri widely celebrated in West Bengal. She did bring a lot of joy and happiness to Mom and Dad as I could see from the 100s of pictures taken of her as she grew from a baby to toddler. Her cute smile and dimple chin photos filled the black and white album where the pictures were carefully placed with the corner stickers. I especially liked her picture sitting in her birthday suit and pulling her gold necklace with one hand. She was born on Friday Oct 2nd , 1964 the day of Goddess Lakshmi (Wealth and prosperity). It was less than a couple of years back that Mom and Dad lost their first baby boy because of stillbirth. They never forgot him and always talked about him as if we had an elder brother. They were also recovering from my grand pa (Dad’s father) passing away only a few months back in June. I was to be named after him (Jagannatham) but that had to wait for another two years.
Akka was always a mischievous girl and Mom used to tell me stories about her being jealous of me when I was a baby and making me cry always. She would pinch me when no one was looking or put excess sambrani dhoop or drop a dry dry red chilli in it. It’s a South Indian tradition to use sambrani (dried benzoin resin), this powder is sprinkled on hot coal to produce smoke that is used for young babies after bath or women to dry their hair after a shower for a fragrant smell. It is supposed to be good to calm the nerves and relieve you of colds. Obviously these were all stories told to me, but what I experienced from Akka was extreme love and support for me at all times. Even when we fought over things like all siblings do, she would come back and console me and make up by giving me treats. She never let anybody talk bad of me or cause harm and she was always there for me. I still remember that day in school when I had an accident. I was in LKG (lower kindergarten) and Akka was in 1st grade at St. Joseph’s school in Vizianagaram. I ran to her class crying bitterly holding my soiled shorts up. She came out of the class and quickly assed the situation that other kids were laughing at me. She shouted at them and then took me to the bathroom, cleaned me up, and consoled me. She then took me home and explained to Mom about what happened at school. She was once kidnapped by a beggar lady from school who wanted to make money by selling her. Dad was an officer in Railway Protection Force (R.P.F), so he had a team of police searching for her. In a few hours the lady came running to Dad’s office and surrendered along with Akka. Everybody was surprised to see the lady’s face bleeding, and she told that this girl is devil and was literally impossible to keep her calm. Akka was a fighter and she carried that spirit throughout her life. At the same time she gave everything for the sake of love, never cared for wealth and her happiness was always seeing other smiling and happy. She would find innovative ways like putting burnol cream (used to treat small burns) on her toes as an excuse to not wearing shoes to school or fake a stomach ache when she felt like not eating something. She was a natural when it came to acting, she learnt to dance on her own and the famous dance choreographer Sampath Kumar (http://www.andhrajalari.com/performance.html) even asked Dad to let her join his troup after seeing her perform Koppu Choodu Koppandam Choodu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewhRWuGbl8Q) song on stage at the age of tender age of 6.
Sometime I feel, she would have had a great career in arts if she got the support from our family at that young age. She was very smart and intelligent and always got 1st rank in school. I remember our few months that we lived in Santragachi near Howrah. Dad was transferred from Vizianagaram (VZM) to Santragachi Jn, and what a farewell he got from the staff of VZM, it is impossible to forget such a festive party.
Akka with her Sadhana hair style (https://homegrown.co.in/article/801637/the-haircut-that-was-all-the-rage-in-the-60s-and-70s) and a colorful frock standing next to Dad and me in a silk short on the other side. Dad was loved by so many people as he was very helpful, and we were like God’s children to all of them. Leaving VZM to a small town in West Bengal where Telugu was not the main language and a totally different culture from our small native town.
She went to school in Santragachi, and I was very happy to carry the heavy school bag for her. I remember a few things about our short stay there (a little over a year). We met Pathak uncle and his family and they were very good friends. We had many dinners together and always enjoyed the delicious fish curry made by Pathak aunty. They had a son called Guddu (nick name), who had a very beautiful name, Jyotindra. It was amazing that Akka found him on facebook after 44 years. She was very happy and told me all about her conversation with him. I remember very vividly one of the picnic trips we had to the beautiful botanic garden in Howrah. If you visit Calcutta (Kolkotta), you should definitely visit the gardens to see the beautiful water lilies and lots of other beautiful plants. Here is the link to a short video about the gardens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CypuZE0-ikU . Well the trip was really made memorable because of who else Akka again with here silly behavior. She somehow managed to take small lily flower bud and shove it up her nose. It became a big drama getting it out as she panicked and was unable to sneeze it out. Dad was cool and helping her to sneeze, but you could clearly see the concern on his face. The episode lasted for about 15-20 minutes but it seemed like a whole day for me. Finally, I think it was Pathak uncle who held her upside down and got the lily bud out. Our short stay in Santragachi left us with very profound memories. It was scary for us to see Dad dealing with lot of goondas and notorious criminals. Sometimes he would be working night shifts and we would all wait impatiently for his return in the morning. We were also away from out grand parents and family for the first time. We missed our trip to Ammama’s place and her bed time stories. During the same time Shyamala aunty (Mom’s 2nd sister) got engaged. Dad for some reason did not approve that alliance and he would not let Mom attend the wedding. They had a big fight over it and I remember Mom crying the whole evening. I am sure Akka had a better understanding about what was happening. A few months later, Dad was transferred back to Vizianagaram.