The Beginning days of the unplanned trip to India - May 2024.

Election campaign in full swing, the media here in India - print, electronic and social are full of news about politics and the coverage of campaign trails. Also there are some odd but interesting news items to amuse you. An eye catching news on the vernacular paper "Sambada" was - "EKA TARAFA PREMARU JHIA RA PUSRUSHA BABDHU KU BIFALA PREMIKA KA CHHURA MADA (One sided affair of a frustrated lover of a girl led him to murder her boyfriend).

One positive side of this emergency trip to India is spending time with my sisters. We are together at home in the same house like good old days in our childhood. During late afternoon there was a power cut as electricity went poof for a short time, yet long enough to make me feel like a fish out of water. I lied down supine on hot bed getting barbecued. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over me I am a great grill. Another couple of hours I could have become a SUKHUA or dried fish, an Odia delicacy.

I stepped out of the room, still groggy and wobbly having woke up from the jet lagged sleep when our maid cautioned me not to step into the floor she just mopped. Thanking her for saving my somnambulist torso from crashing on the slippery floor, I tip toed carefully trudging into the balcony to get some fresh air. A street vendor was yelling DAHI BARA DAHI BARA (Dahi Vada), a big tin container tied to the back of his bicycle with rubber tubes. 

It reminded me of an episode from our childhood, when we used to defy our parents to buy DAHI BARA from such street vendors against our parent's wishes. Once we found couple of drowned cockroaches who had taken a Buttermilk burial. We were squarely reprimanded not to buy anything from such vendors. That was more than 40 years ago. Duscussing this we siblings had a hearty laugh at our expense, badly missing one person, our mother.

Our Hindu rituals of mourning death and salvation of soul are very detail oriented, running over a dozen days on special rituals assigned to specific dates. Unfortunately the process is neither structured nor quite
standardized or streamlined. 100 people give you 10,000 opinion, many unsolicited ones regarding the methodologies involved in these rituals out which you need to chose a few conducive to your resourcefulness and ability. I had never done these rituals before, so taking responsibility as the head of the household is no joke. Nor accustomed to this, it is quite a challenge.

On the positive side, social occasions due to these rituals gives an opportunity to meet and mingle with friends and relatives, some long lost relationships lying dormant for a long time to resurface again. Success may breed jealousy and adversaries, but sorrows and bereavement can be great leveller. No wonder it is said that during flood a goat and a tiger peacefully travel on the same boat. Ball is set in motion with long, hectic days ahead. I don't mind doing those at all. Anything necessary in honor of my mother to see her happy in the nether world. You got do which you got to do.