Living in Exile

Get out of my house….   He yells, index finger right before the long nose of my brother. He was fuming in anger. I and my sister were standing either side of brother, and I stepped slowly behind least to be visible. Though my dad do not hold the history to hit us or anyone, throughout his life till date, but who's gonna take a chance? I was in 1^st std when our exile was in progress. My big B was one of the most unruly, uncontrolled, unmanageable and every UN and LESS associated with the word  disobedience. He was ahead of each and every mischief.
As my sister was always with him, and I am with her, ultimately we became  the part of his illegal crime  without any legal contribution and would be the prime suspects.

On contrary, my mother never gave us any such beautiful warnings, she was up to the mark, only the thing we could listen was… "Don’t call me Mummy!!! and dam dumm dhaam modern art all over the face (and these arts were only way to tame us). Father is quite, calm like sea but at time this sea showed us tsunami. And my brother was the sole human in whole universe who hold the proficiency to trigger this catastrophe

Do not exactly recall the kind of breach or home violation, my brother and we two daughters of my father had done, but was serious enough. And the verdict was exile. Mom was just standing beside motionless with a single expression,a winning smile as if saying "you all badly needed this."

And I was hallucinating in vain that, she would come running saying don’t don’t they are our kids. Don’t beat them for god sakes. (Overburden dialogues resulted from over watching of Hindi movies) She didn't move a inch also.

What are you all waiting for I said out and stand holding your ears….  He screamed again. And with our head buried in ground we slowly walked towards the exit door. My brother chuckled and whispered thank god murga nahin banaya and tum dono ko murgi (this was the all time evergreen punishment of my father). We were unable to hold our laugh at that moment.

Father was posted to Himachal those days, a place of beauty and bone chilling cold. We three stood in varanda, with our teeth chattering in rhythm. What we are going to do now? I asked almost tear and worried. Uff this big eyed cat( my pet name catty by my brother ) always starts crying. From where do you bring this ocean of tears? he continued and I hung my head down in despair. Don’t worry your big brother is still alive, what if we are abandoned, what if  we are alone,I'll take care of you!! he said waving his one hand in air and one still holding the ear. These words were erupted  not out of concern but the impact of again overloaded minds with Hindi cinemas

This was quite obvious, by default. Our school was on the mid way between defence PVR (of those time) and home. And the show time was 3:30. As we walked towards the home jumping  happily after school hours, many a time were being abducted by mother and crowd of aunties designated as Mom's friends on the way itself straight to theatre.Our refreshment would  starts sitting right in front of 75mm screen which only included eating both food and dialogues. Food moving to stomach and dialogues penetrating to our minds

So, back to our episode. Big brother was trying to figure out how we will carry our livelihood and I was already, as always, floating in dreams that after being kicked out of home, we will take the profession of nomads  and will travel  some far far  places away. I will be at home taking in charge of cooking and other household stuff and my sibling will step out for earning. The job would be small road side circus. Where in my sister will walk on the rope holding big bamboo stick and my brother will play drums simultaneously collecting the thrown money.

Suddenly I said to my brother bhai can’t we accompany our younger brother too, he can collect coins when you are busy playing drum. What drum? what coins? you duffer and they both started giggling. I was dragged out of dream world

Suddenly my mother appeared from nowhere and was furious to see us howling. With folded hands she stared at us and said nodding her head "shameless creature!!, you will never change, no matter whatever punishment you receive. Next time ill tell your father to leave you all in some jungle so that ill be relieved. God knows what will lead you in future. Come inside its too cold.

We again buried our heads in the ground and walked inside still holding the ears. And our dream of earning got shattered

Present day whenever I ask my mother about our exile, she would rarely remember and says laughing there are many more tales of your bravery and heroism,this must be just a bit of it