Swara started writing her next childhood memory
‘In one of my previous episodes I have mentioned that the house where I spent my childhood had a big front yard. The backyard of our neighboring house faced our porch. They also had a well in the corner of their backyard. The well was pretty deep and the water in it was not potable and hence was unused. There was no proper protective wall around it and had our dilapidated compound wall on one side
From our house, since the compound wall was low, one could see the well and it so happened that every now and then cats, dogs and hens would accidentally fall into the well. The owner of the house never bothered to do anything about it. They used to take the dead animals out when the stench permeated and potassium permanganate did the job of cleansing the well! Those days, there was no concept of having a net over the wells. Wells were left open and caution to be exercised by the discerning user!!Mom had warned me not to go anywhere near the well.
Our neighbour had two kids, both elder to me by many years. I used to go to their house very often as they were fond of me. One day I went and played with them for some time and soon it was time for their tuitions and they got busy. I did not want to return home. Moreover I had always wanted to take a look into well which mom had forbidden . I quietly went out through their backdoor and made my way to the well. Then I settled on the compound wall and was soon lost in my world, my back facing my house. Mom used to stitch a lot and I knew she would be too busy to notice. Moreover she was under the assumption that I was playing at my neighbour’s!
After a while mom came out, wondering why I wasn’t back home, only to find me sitting on the crumbling compound wall. I was hunched looking into the well. Mom stood there, rooted to the spot. Her heart was in her mouth. She knew that if she called out to me, I would be startled and fall into the well. She had to walk a bit to reach the far end of the wall. She tip toed towards me, careful not to divert my attention. She made her way towards me as slowly as possible, bare footed, through the twigs and leaves that lay on the ground. Once she reached close to me, she quickly caught me from behind and took me away.
I hadn’t realised the graveness of the situation. I could have very well fallen inside and no one would have even known! I do not know how I managed to sit there without falling, for my hands were full of pebbles and I was throwing it one by one into the well. Kids are not afraid of anything, right? Once again mom’s protective instinct saved my life.
There was another incident which had happened prior to this, where again I had got lost. My neighbour’s kids had come home, taken me to their house and then the next thing mom knew was, our shopkeeper bringing me back home! Apparently, they had gotten busy and they didn’t even know when I left their house. This time I had headed towards the road and thankfully the shopkeeper found me alone and brought me home! The neighbour had apologized then, for not ensuring that I was back home safe.
Now, after the ‘well’ incident, mom stopped sending me to the neighbour’s house. She felt that the neighbour was not responsible enough and had not even bothered to check if I was headed back home! Talking of wells, we too had a well in our house from which we used to draw water. The same way, our well was also in the corner of our backyard touching the compound wall. As a kid, I would wake up and run to see the level of water in the well, especially in the monsoon. It fascinated me to see the level of water increasing. Once the water level was so high that we could even draw water with a bucket directly without even using a rope and pulley. During summer water would be rock bottom but our well had never gone dry. We used to wash clothes and take bath near the well.
Ah, the feeling of freshness when mom used to pour bucketfuls of cold water from the well straight onto our heads! Bathing used to be quite an event! We used to bathe twice in summers! I still remember the smell of pears soap which mom always used for us. And mom used to enjoy our company, letting us play, do mischiefs & what not!
We never had taps, it was only water from the well which we used for regular use, storing them in buckets.
Ah! Those days were really fun, how innocent we were!
That’s all for now! Until my next post’
Yet again Swara was lost in nostalgia.
