Randhir was startled by the presence of the teenage Sanyukta desperately hanging off the mango tree just outside his bedroom balcony. "Who is it, son? It must be those infernal kids after the fruit in the garden!'' His mother Renuka called out to h...
"Kodagu is truly beautiful! Very scenic, teeming with coffee and orange plantations. Pepper vines entwine around trees. In the dense undergrowth one finds cardamom, areca, banana, lush ferns and arum.Monkeys frolic in the wild like a bunch of naughty kids and spotted deer move about in herds feeling completely at home! Wish you were here with us!" Sanyukta gushed. Randhir smiled to see the earnest look on her face.
"It is a summer destination, must be quite cold there in the winter. I recall spending a week in Coorg. Do you remember Arvind and Suniti Kasbekar, we had visited them in Karwar? Their family and ours took the holiday together one summer. Suniti Aunty had contacts as she grew up in Mangalore. The food we sampled in Coorg was spectacular- the traditional pork curry and stir fried bamboo shoots- I still remember the taste." Randhir had happy memories of that childhood trip. Tanvi- Arvind and Suniti's daughter- was close to his age and son Tushar was younger than Parth. The four children had been on many holidays together with their parents and had enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
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Sanyukta listened as Randhir recalled his memories, she had none of her own to match them. She could not help but feel a tinge of envy wishing her own childhood had been similar. Anju always took on extra work during the summer holidays to supplement her teacher's meagre pay, it ranged from coaching students in vacation batches to evaluating board examination papers. There was neither the time nor funds for a holiday. If Anju did not save money they would have none to repair the tiled roof of their house in Goa before the monsoons each year.
Sanyukta disliked the thought of a leaky roof during heavy rains, about having to live perpetually with the smell of damp walls and placing buckets under the drips from the ceiling. Mother and daughter had such few sets of clothes that Sanyukta rarely had anything fully dry to wear during the monsoon. The clothes on the line took forever to dry and would smell of smoke from the clay stove in the backyard where they heated their bath water. To save on power bills Anju only ironed clothes that were needed for leaving home, home wear would be worn straight off the line.
During her school days Sanyukta often wished she had a father like the other girls in her class though her real father was better off dead. Girls who came from double income families never understood her and branded her as weird. Sanyukta vowed that if she ever had children she would move heaven and earth to give them a life of dignity and financial security. Her mother had only seen struggle. One day she would ensure that she made enough money for Anju to retire comfortably and spend quality time with her grandchildren.
Their life had changed only recently after they moved to Mumbai. The official quarters given to Anju was a spacious furnished flat. Her pay raise had also been substantial. Thanks to Harsh Shekhawat they had finally left their difficult existence in Goa behind them. The only thing Sanyukta missed about Goa was the time she had spent with Randhir. She was unsure how Anju had felt about moving to Mumbai. She did seem quite upbeat about her career and their new found prosperity. Harsh helped Anju settle down before he left for the US with Randhir. Sanyukta wondered if her mother ever missed him like she missed Randhir. In that matter Anju was a closed book that revealed nothing.
