Return to Jammu by V Raghunathan

Author:V Raghunathan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A Novel
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

31

1966

It was April 1966 and Father was transferred again, back to Ambala. He knew that unless he moved away from Jammu, he had little chance of landing a civilian assignment, which he had been contemplating since 1962, since people from outside the state of J&K weren’t easily employed there. So he was enthusiastically looking forward to the transfer and was all set to go back to good old Ambala where he still had many friends. When he got the transfer order, he promptly went back to take charge at the new assignment and tie up the house etc., after which he could return to Jammu to escort us all back to our old town by the end of the month.

I was most unhappy, as this meant I would have to leave all my friends behind. How was I to live without Jeesha, or Moni, or Rajesh, and all the others without whom I couldn’t imagine my existence?

The imminent parting from Jeevan Asha jogged an unfinished mission to my memory. One day I casually initiated a discussion with Mother about marriage, and off-handedly asked her whether it was all right for a Keralite or Tamilian boy, for instance, to marry a Kashmiri girl, especially if the girl was also taller than him. She laughed and told me, ‘No, you can’t marry Jeevan Asha just yet!’ Boy, was she a sorceress, and brutally direct. There was nothing to do but to tuck my tail in and slink away.

There was a brief period of consternation at home on the last morning as our things were getting packed, as each of our friends, particularly Urmila’s and mine, came over gave us their nishani – a parting gift to remember them by. It was a very nice gesture on their part, of course.

Jeesha gave me a beautiful large white handkerchief, finely picoted around the edges and delicately embroidered with her own hands, with a beautiful and cursive B in blue. I had never seen anything more elegant than that handkerchief.

My heart simply went out to her.

This gift thing had taken us by surprise. Neither Mother nor we had been aware of this custom, and so hadn’t prepared for it. Now the problem was, if we received nishani, it went without saying that we had an obligation to reciprocate. Also, while for each of our friends it was just one gift to give away, for us – between Urmila, Supriya and me – we had twelve to fifteen gifts to buy, which meant a big and unexpected dent in the family budget!

I thought it was my duty to somehow mitigate the family’s financials. But how? Once again the answer came from Jeevan Asha; not directly, but indirectly. It was her self-made gift to me that gave me the idea.

Of course, I had no time to make anything for my friends. So I put on my thinking cap, heard my brains creaking and finally came to a few conclusions. Fortunately, most of my knick-knacks and gimcracks –

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