Mother on a Mission - Jungle Justice - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post no - 66

Blackie with Pranav 

Panther’s anguish was unbearable. She was trying to talk. She was struggling to tell us something that was uncomprehendable. It was a mother’s desperate call for help.

Finally, the skies closed with an almighty last minute extra downpour. It was late evening. Outside the situation was bleak. Almost one foot of water in our garden. The path way to the main gate was slushy. Sodden grass lay flattened. It was slippery and walking was difficult. Oblivious of the wet conditions, Panther shot out and was gone in a flash. She was a Mother on a Mission -  To trace and bring home her tiny kittens.

Our family somehow made it to the road. The muddy roads were soaking wet. BDU’s English Professor was also out. I explained what had happened. Initially he took it as a joke but seeing our serious and earnest expressions, he swung into action. He called out ‘giligeli, giligeli (kitten in Amharic). He was also making clicking noises. The omnipresent urchin (small children) army of our Kable moved in to help. 

Soon our street was full of ‘giligeli’ battle cries. Some children did not know what they were searching for. But it was fun time for them. They walloped in the muddy water and some even collapsed into the small ponds and threw the muddy water at each other. It was as if R.K.Narayan’s Malgudi had magically transpired itself in front of us!

One kid put his hand into a small pond and gave out an all mighty yell. All the other searchers converged to the spot. Rapid Amharic conversation followed. I could decipher what they were saying. ‘The kid felt something soft in the wet mud’.  

We watched the kid grope around in the dark water. Our faces were ashen with anxiety and grief. He dramatically drew out something brown. We heaved a collective sigh of relief. It was a plastic bag full of kitchen waste that was callously dumped on the road.    

Patchy with Sahithi 

After a lengthy search we returned home with a heavy heart. The African night sneaked on us as sudden as ever. There was silence all around. Sometime later Panther dragged herself in. She was a pathetic sight to behold. Wet and shivering. She lost her will to live. 

Padma dried her. The usually lively Panther was now passive and resigned to her fate. That night’s dinner was sombre and faces were drawn.  It was as if there was a death in the family. 

Around 10:00 p.m. that night, Panther woke up with a screech that would have made a banshee proud. It was as loud as a siren. It shook us out of our slumber. Panther was scratching the kitchen door that exited to the backyard that had the Injira house. 

The minute we opened the kitchen door, Panther rushed to the Injira house and set up yodeling. Not knowing what was happening, we brought a torch and tried searching. There was nothing in the Injira house. Is it possible that the sudden loss of her kittens had made Panther mad? 

Panther was beside herself. In desperation she tried scaling the Injira wall. “There, there” Pranav screamed his lungs out. We shined the torch up to the roof. Sitting on the roof beam and shivering uncontrollably were two tiny, sorry looking and wet to the bone, kittens. 

It was a mystery how they got there. (Next day morning on inspection we found a tiny hole in the bamboo structure through which the kittens must have wiggled out and wiggled in). Somehow with lot of difficulty we could get the scared kittens off the roof beam.

The kittens were laid on our drawing room floor, shivering and mewing piteously. But Panther was not having any of it. She launched on the kittens and gave them an all mighty thrashing. There was no stopping her. She closed her front paws, slapped the kittens and boxed them to submission.

It was a punishment of a life time. Panther let out her pent up fury and it was an awesome display of jungle justice. ‘How dare you? How dare you? THOU SHALL NOT REPEAT IT AGAIN”. The message was driven in with brutal force.

After initial shock, the kittens whimpered into submission. They lay on their backs and took the punishment. After the brutal retribution, Panther snuggled them. She cleaned them thoroughly and sometimes the kittens cried out loud as her tongue would probe and take out something much to their discomfort.

Panther then fed them. Exhausted and frightened out of their wits after the wild adventure the kittens slept. Till date it is a mystery as to how the kittens survived the torrential rain and came back home safely.

After that day, the kittens were scared stiff of their laid back, gentle mother. No matter what they were doing or how naughty they were, one mew and a stern look from Panther would get them back to her. Humble, tail swooshing and submissive. Such was Panther’s power over her kittens. 

“Raining Cats and Dogs” – Ethiopian Journey – Blog Post – No 65.

Sahithi and behind her and beyond the window is the Injira House

Panther was a kitten when she adopted us. Within months we noticed changes in her. She became moody and was quite touchy. She would mop in the corners and continuously lick herself. She would tear off pieces of paper or any soft material and prepare a bed of sorts. She was often restless and had a forlorn look.

I googled and found out the reason. Panther was pregnant! Quite innocently I broke the news in front of the children. From then on our life became full of tension. Both the children were on pins and needles. They would stalk Panther around hoping that she would simply cough up cute kittens into their hands.

Worst of all, they wanted to tie Panther. Padma and me vetoed the idea. We did not want to shackle a free spirit. One day returning from the university, I saw both Pranav and Sahithi in the garden. They were crestfallen and close to tears. “what happened?” I asked “Panther simply disappeared” Sahithi replied with a heavy heart.

“So what” I said jauntily “she would return”. “Sometimes, I wonder how you became a teacher!” Sahithi said with clenched teeth “what if she delivers the kittens and comes back, all alone”. Even after a lengthy explanation both the kids were convinced that we did not take proper care of their    pet  and that she left us in a huff. I told them that Panther had gone to visit her relatives and that she would be back.

It was only after Panther returned that calm was restored in our house. The D (delivery) Day arrived in the night. The next day morning Padma woke me up rudely! I got up and goggled at her. “wake up, wake up, they have arrived”.

This commotion woke the children too. They shot off like mis-guided missiles. Immediately, I heard huge wails and sobbing sounds. I ran to the drawing room. I did not know what was happening! “Look Nanna” said Sahithi “Panther delivered rats instead of kittens! That too very ugly rats” she was totally devastated. 

New Born Kittens 

Looking on was the proud mother, Panther. She was unperturbed. Nestling against her side and feeding were three tiniest kittens! Almost the size of our little finger and they looked like small rats! Later when the children were not around, we picked up the kittens and examined them. They were very small and their eyes were tightly shut. If a finger was put near their mouth they would try to suck on it, greedily.

We told the skeptical children that they were kittens and not rats. I told them that they would grow slowly and that the eyes would open after twenty-one days. The waiting was too much for Sahithi. She would patiently sit near Panther and wait. But the kittens were oblivious of her presence. They would feed or sleep. Sahithi named the kittens. They became Snowy, Snowball and Snowbell. But a tragedy was about to strike!

Their eyes opened and they started to play with themselves. Sahithi would pick them up but they were too young. They always wanted to be with their mother. Pranav’s birthday was coming up and we put the kittens in a cardboard box and placed them at one end of the garden.

The next few days we were busy with Pranav’s birthday party planning, preparation of the items and the actual party itself. The party was a huge success.

The day after Pranav’s birthday, Sahithi broke the bad news. She told us that her kittens had simply disappeared into thin air. We searched the entire Kable. They were not to be found. Strangely Panther was not perturbed. She would disappear too and come back after some time.

Much later, we saw the three hooligans quite frequently. They would come and bask themselves on our garden wall. But they were completely wild and would run away if approached. It was a huge let-down for Sahithi. May be that was the reason why, Panther did not get them back to our house. She was astute enough to understand that her first litter was not very people friendly!

The cycle repeated six months later and Panther was expecting again.  This time we prepared a cardboard box bed and lined it with grass. Padma put some food and water. Panther was curious about her new nursing quarters. She went inside the box and settled down.

She gave out a series of purrs which sounded very much like ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’. Just to be safe, the cardboard box was placed in the Injira house. Our Injira house was a ramshackle hut made with bamboo. As Injira making was laborious and involved cooking Injira on wood based fire, most Ethiopians made Injira houses away in their backyard.

This time around Panther delivered two kittens. One was golden brown, with white and black patches and she became Patchy and the second kitten was black but had shades of grey. She became blackie. This set of kittens were friendly.

They were handled by us from a very young age and were totally fearless. They thought of us as their family. But they were incredibly naughty. They would hide behind doors and jump on unsuspecting passers-by. They would chase a ball continuously. They would happily sit in our lap and purr like a malfunctioning alarm clock that badly needed greasing! They would pounce on the broom stick and worry it just like Panther worries the rats.

Their naughtiness was about to get them into a great mess. One day the sky darkened. The atmosphere became ominously quiet. There was no wind blowing and it looked as if something sinister was about to happen.

The skies opened up. Rain in Ethiopia was fierce. We were enveloped with deafening noises. The power went off and it was eerie. We did not know from where the strange sounds were coming. Heavy down pour with hail stones! We opened the drawing room door and saw hailstones as big as table tennis balls. They were piling up in our garden.

Cutting through the sound were the Panther’s plaintive wails. We went into the Injira room. Panther was frantic with worry. There was anguish in her eyes. We peeped into the cardboard box. THE KITTENS HAD DISAPPEARED. I dare not look at Sahithi. It was heart breaking. To lose one set of kittens was bad enough but losing the second set was sheer disaster.

“Gosh” said a thunderstruck Padma “It’s raining cats and dogs”. It was as if she shot me with a shot gun. “ussssh” I said motioning her to be quiet. We were in a mess with two very irritated females (Panther and Sahithi) and Padma is referring to “Cats and dogs raining”. Both Panther and Sahithi would not take it lightly. They might even think that any minute, their precious kittens would come down as rain!

The next three hours were filled with anxiety and hope. Panther was beside herself. It was unbearable even to look at her. She would dash around the house and mew loudly. She wanted to venture outside but it was raining heavily.

(What happened next ?????, Can lightning strike at a place twice ????????, Would Sahithi and Panther be heartbroken twice over ?????????, read about it in my next blog post).

Panther, The black beauty and the rag-tag cat army, Ethiopian Journey, Blog Post No – 64

Panther our pet cat with Pranav and looking on is Anasuya Devi Aunty, Padma's Mother. Notice the huge sunflower plants and the lawn that was very tough to grow. The pathway was born out of tough physical labour

Surprisingly Bahirdar had very few stray dogs. The number of stray dogs could easily be counted on fingers. Coming from a country (India) where stray dogs are dime a dozen, that was a huge let off. Dogs make life interesting. Ethiopians were scared of rabies and stray dogs were mercilessly hunted and eradicated.  

Cats were tolerated and loved. Even though there is a possibility that rabies could easily be transmitted by cats, they were on display in Bahirdar. They were mostly strays and would roam from one house to the other. These ferals would operate in a group with roles, positions and a well-defined pecking order.

The rag tag army relaxing after a nice meal

The rag tag army of cats discovered that there were new firangs (foreigners) in the town. They came down in a clowder and discovered that the pink house had promise! The occupants were animal tolerant, rather pet loving; there were kids around and where there are kids, it meant food. Also the cats were not teased nor stoned.

The cat army scooped in, fought over the left over food and moved on. They simply loved our Pongal and it was the elixir of life that they could not afford to miss! They would patiently wait in the portico and would eat their breakfast with gusto.

Once the breakfast was done and dusted, they moved on. But some stayed back. One of them was an orange and black tabby, Tiger. Tiger was quite affectionate but would spit and draw her claws, if we tried to lift her up. The children amused themselves by watching the cats from a distance.

Black is only in my name, Panther who loved posing! 

Then one day, walked in, a black beauty. Black beauty was a sight to behold. Jet black, she would have caused many an Indian to stop their journey just by crossing their path. But in Ethiopia, black cats were precious. They were the harbingers of good luck. Black cats were a premium and were the pick of the litter. Some were even sold and bought at astronomical prices!

Panther, she was christened. Panther was the gentlest of the cats that we came across. She was incredibly intelligent and very tame. She would come up and rub herself against our legs and give a small mew. That was her signal, “pick me up”. Once picked up she would nestle against our body and drop off to sleep. She loved us, but adored Sahithi. She became Sahithi’s most loved companion. She did not mind Pranav’s rough and ready games. If the game became rougher, she would jump off and run away. She was our pet but was free to come and go as she pleased.

Panther was worth her weight in gold. She was a great mouser. She was a killing machine par excellence. She would mercilessly hunt down the rats and give them the kiss of death - break their necks with a swift bite.

Sometimes the kitten in her would come to the fore. She would hunt her prey and knock the rat off its senses. Then she would lay next to the unconscious rat and wait. We could feel her excitement. Her tail would be swirling all the time. She was pregnant with anticipation. Once the stunned rat regained consciousness, the cat and mouse game was on!

Panther would literally play with the mouse. Allow it to gain some distance and then pounce on the poor rat. She would let the rat think that escape was imminent and pounce again. It was the game of death! The rat would make desperate screeching noises!

Not able to see the torture being inflicted, I would sometimes take out the poor rat into the garden. Panther would give a glare that said it all. “Shucks man, Come on! It was a game. Don’t be a spoil sport. Just when the game was getting more exciting!”. She would try to continue the game in the garden but allowed the rat to escape! It was puzzling to see her, toy with her food!

Panther the heroine with her side kick, ME!

Panther gained in confidence and started to look at us, as her family. She thought it was her duty to bring us gifts! Her gifts were messy and grisly! Every morning, the minute we opened the front door, the grisly gifts were on display. A stack of dead rats, neatly arranged!

Sitting next to the gruesome offering, would be Panther, expecting a pat on the back and a bowl of fresh milk! She could never understand as to why Padma always scooped her gifts and dumped them outside! “Never mind, you crazy Indians” she must have muttered to herself “I can always get you more”.

The cycle continued and the next day morning it was business as usual. Panther ensured that we were rat free. Panther was a bird killer too! She would patiently wait in the bushes and pounce on the unsuspecting birds.

Watching her hunt, I reminded myself “that is why the cat is called the aunt of the tiger”. Panther stalking and killing was like watching a tiger hunt! Only difference was watching a tiger kill, was like seeing a movie in Imax (the best movie projection theatre in Hyderabad) and watching Panther kill was like watching the same movie in a five-inch mobile phone. It was the same, except that the effect was minimized!

Sahithi’s early morning activities were organized. She would get up and if I didn’t have a morning session at the university, would accompany me in my morning walk in our garden. And tagging along us would be Panther. She was bored but she did it for her mistress.  

Sahithi was a silent operator. She would closely inspect the plants. She was our inspector-in-chief. Nothing missed her hawk eyes. She would talk to them briefly, enquiring about their health and if they had been watered. Sometimes she would even sing to the flowering plants. Initially all this was met with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But she proved us wrong. Our plants grew rapidly, blossomed and flowered profusely. Our main rose plant at one time had more than 100 roses! It was a sight to behold. It looked as if the rose plant was decked with roses and it had very little leaves!

During her inspection Sahithi would grunt suddenly, turn towards me and point an accusing finger and caustically say “NANNA”. Coming into the army’s attention stand, I would humbly follow her stare. What has annoyed my little inspector-in-chief? It could be dry leaves or withered flowers. She would not budge unless the pruning was done, immediately. It was quite amusing to follow her as she performed her duty, religiously and meticulously. 

Sahithi Goes to school, Teacher's home visit, Ethiopian Journey, Blog Post - 63

Pranav had difficulty in understanding the concept of currency. An Ethiopian Birr had 100 santims. The coins were 5, 10, 25 and 50 in denomination. I told him “4 of 25 santims would become I Birr”. For a kid, that was confusing because his teacher (Padma told him that 4 times 25 is 100!). Many repetitions later he understood the concept of money and that 100 santims become I Birr! It was coming of age for him. Mathematics and currency are two different things.

Pranav had his classes whenever Sahithi slept and that meant that most of the time he would be free to do as he pleased. He would watch cartoons or pace in the garden! He was our “pacing tiger”, He carried a stick that he would swoosh around as if he was wielding a sword!

He was quite good at drawing at that age. He drew pictures that had quite profound meaning. Once he drew a picture of a tiger eyeing a rabbit and next to the tiger were the words, slurp, slurp drawn in a dialogue bubble. The tiger was salivating thinking about roasted rabbit meat!

Oblivious of the greedy tiger, the rabbit was eyeing fresh carrots and funnily next to the rabbit were the same words, Slurp, slurp and the rabbit was thinking of tasty carrot halwa! It was funny and quite philosophical. In the “tiger eat rabbit world”, the rabbit was aiming to devour the poor carrots and he himself was about to be devoured by the tiger! Some of his drawings were later published, courtesy my father who carefully collected them and sent them to The New Indian Express.

On the other side, for Sahithi, school was something new that she never experienced. She was only two at that time and had not even attended a play school in India.

She would take a bath, dress for school, wear her socks and shoes, take her school bag with books and lunch bag that had her lunch box, water bottle, snacks and a napkin. She would pack all these all the time muttering that her mother was 'delaying her'. She would even wear a cap as if it was quite sunny!  She would wave good bye to her mother and set off to school. She would arrive at her school, 10 seconds later!

Meanwhile magically mother had to become teacher. Wearing her Pallu (Sahithi was very strict! Her teachers had to wear proper dress!), Padma would sprint from the kitchen or from the drawing room and arrive in the school, a second or two earlier than Sahithi!

Once she is at school (our bed room with its solemn and quite colourful mosquito net) Sahithi very carefully took off her shoes, placed them carefully near the bedroom door and climbed onto to the bed. We did not have any table or chairs. Our bedroom magically became the school!

We had a rolling black board that we had brought from India. We also had different coloured chalks and Padma and Sahithi had a whale of a time learning new things.

Sahithi had many imaginary friends, Pooja, Viha, Chetan, Sanjana and Ashok. They all had their respective places in the classroom. They were like real class mates. They were asked questions and apparently gave wrong answers all the time!

Padma would chide the errant child and then patronizingly ask Sahithi the same questions. Sahithi would visibly brighten and earnestly answer.

Even though it was all make belief, it was realistic and entertaining to see the charade being played out, every day. Sahithi loved all her friends and the only student whom she was disliked was Ashok; fat, chunky, short and always late to school. He would laugh loudly and irritate the girls.

Many times, I being the principal of the Bahirdar Indian School had the misfortune of hosting Ashok in my office (our drawing room).  

I was told in no certain terms that Ashok was banished to the Principal’s office for his bad behaviour. Apart from babysitting Ashok, the principal hardly had any work. If he peeped into the classroom there would be pin drop silence. Even the ever noisy Ashok would put his finger on his lips!

Sahithi found the entire thing very entertaining and she had no pressure at all. She was not scared of her teachers and could take a break whenever she wanted. The only persona-non-grata was Pranav who could irritate anyone in the world at that time with his unanswerable questions.

One time he popped into the classroom disturbed the class and asked with a twinkle in his eyes "Teacher, what does the tiger do with the clothes of the people that he eats? Does he eat people with the clothes? Or does he undress the victims before he eats them? If he undresses the victims where does the tiger store the victim’s clothes?” It was a Tsunami of questions. Before she was washed away in the tornado of questions, the teacher quickly banished Pranav to the Principals office.

That day I had the experience of two errant students in my office. On one side was Ashok and on the other side was Pranav. Quite a tiring day for the Principal! How I wished that the teacher made their naughty students sit in a corner and not force them down the throats of the poor unsuspecting principal. One naughty boy was bearable but two of them on the same day! It started to look like as if the principal was getting punished! 

In the same school, singing classes were held and both Sahithi and Padma would sing many rhymes. Telugu podupu kathalu and Vemana Satakalu too were recited. They even dabbled in art. Sahithi did finger, wax, bubble and blow painting and Pranav painted animals from numbers.

One day in the morning as I was getting dressed, Padma came up to me and said, “We are having a surprise visitor today. Sahithi’s teacher is going to visit us. You have to be here in the afternoon”. I was nonplussed. “When you are the teacher, why do I need to be here?” 

“No, no you better be here”. Waving her finger at me and scolding me just like a naughty student, she warned “better be here on time. Sahithi and her teacher might be upset”.

When I came home in the afternoon, I was shell shocked. There was palpable tension and excitement in the air. The entire house was sparkling clean and there were incense sticks giving out fragrance. Every one including a sullen Pranav was dressed as if we were hosting a party. Padma was wearing a saree. I gave a knowing wink but was silenced by a frown. We were expecting that Sahithi would invite Padma as her teacher. We were in for a big surprise.

Sahithi rushed in. She was frantic, “My teacher is at the market; she does not know our address. Guide her” She thrust her plastic toy phone into my hand. It was my turn now. I picked up the phone and gave directions to the teacher.

When I put the phone down, Sahithi glared at me. “Nanna” she said “you did not tell her what the sharing blue taxi uncle would charge from market to our house”. I told her that taxi drivers are very scared of Indians and that they would not over charge her precious teacher.

Sometime later Padma, Sahithi and me went to the main road and accompanied Sahithi’s teacher home. We walked slowly as Sahithi’s teacher was new to our Kable and the roads were muddy.

We had sumptuous snacks. On menu were Pakodi, murukulu, biscuits and Coke. Sahithi was at her best behaviour. She was ensuring that her teacher was fed with all the choicest snacks. Padma was conversing with the teacher. 

Sahithi's teacher apparently told Padma that Sahithi was well behaved and that she was very prompt in all her class work. Sahithi blushed when Padma told her the same. She looked at her teacher and gave her a winsome smile. At the same time Sahithi was unhappy with Pranav. She would continuously frown and look menacingly at Pranav who was enjoying his snacks with gay abandon.

At last the teacher got up and was about to leave. Then tragedy struck.  It started raining and quickly it turned into a down pour. Sahithi informed us that as it was raining outside, her teacher could not go in the sharing taxi. We had to call her an individual cab. Sahithi was on pins and needles. Finally, after a long delay the imaginary cab arrived and we bundled Sahithi’s teacher into it and the cab left enveloping us in its dark and smelly exhaust smoke.

Sahithi was elated. She asked Padma “amma, do you think that my teacher was happy visiting our house?” “Happy” I murmured to myself “another such visit and I would be a prime case for a heart attack!”

Indian School Addis Ababa, Home Schooling, The case of Bheema and Cinderella, Ethiopian Journey, Blog Post no - 62

There are 1.6 crore Indians living outside the country. Indians love to travel and spread their roots throughout the world but there is one thing that they are very particular about – their children’s education.

To offer quality education, great sacrifices are made and family splits vertically into two, the bread winner moves to the foreign country, the spouse in many cases the mother stays back and takes care of the children’s education needs. 

I had done my own research and Dad’s friend Khanchal also assured me that Addis Ababa has an Indian school and that CBSE syllabus was followed. The school also allowed students from stations other than Addis Ababa to come and write the annual examinations. 

That was a great relief. But another problem cropped up. The time was not enough for Pranav’s admission in the November month, when we landed in Addis Ababa for the first time. We tried but the school was closed for holidays.

On my consequent visit to Addis Ababa, I submitted the admission form and checked the text books that Pranav was having at Geetanjali school in Hyderabad. The text books followed at Indian School were the same as Geetanjali Public School, Hyderabad.

The School Principal Nair was a fine gentleman. He was superbly confident that Pranav would do very well. But pouring cold water on my upbeat mood, he asked “what is your son’s second language? “Telugu” I answered very confidently.

“That will not do” he answered with a firm nod. “He will have to take Hindi”. I pleaded with him. But to no avail. Nair sir was firm. It was Hindi or nothing. I was given the TINA (There Is No Alternative). If Pranav had to study, he has to take Hindi. Pranav does not even know Hindi alphabet. I jumped the gun and accepted the challenge and admitted Pranav in the second class.

Seeing my crestfallen expression, Nair softened a little ‘I know, I know it is difficult to learn without attending a regular full time school. And you have come in January and your son has hardly three months to prepare for his 2^nd class examination”. He went out and consulted his other teachers. It was a quite difficult to stay still. I did not know what was happening.

Sometime later Nair came back. Seeing his cheerful expression, I knew that there was some good news. “Sir” he said “we will allow one-year exemption for your son. He need not write 2d class Hindi examination. But when he is writing his 3^rd class annual examination he will have to write both 2^nd class and 3^rd class hindi exams.” But hindi text book was not available. Nair asked me to come later and take a Xerox copy!

I was confident that the mother-son duo of Padma and Pranav can pull it off. Pranav was reasonably smart and Padma had worked as a teacher in India.

Back at Bahirdar this news was met with silence that you could cut with a knife. Both mother and son were shocked. But I brought them down to reality and said “we have no choice. It is either Hindi or go back to India”. Immediately they perked up and said that they will take it as a challenge. To learn hindi from scratch, cover the syllabus of UKG, 1^st class and write 2^nd class and 3^rd class hindi examinations at one go is an arduous task.

The hindi text book was difficult to procure. Two or three attempts were made but every time the hindi Xerox was elusive. Finally, it was Mr. Khanchal who took it as a challenge. He deputed his employee and after nearly three months the Xerox arrived by post. I mentally thanked Mr. Khanchal for his support.

Padma and Pranav were relieved and it was amazing to see Pranav pick up hindi just like a duck takes to water. It was the taste of things to come. Pranav proved later, that he has a special gift as far as learning new languages was concerned!

Most Indians in Ethiopia followed the home schooling concept. Home schooling is where the home becomes the school and it is the parents who take the responsibility of teaching their children. Padma had to take care of both Pranav’s and sahithi’s schooling needs.

In places like Arba Minch, Mekele and Gondar, Indian families with children organized schools in their own houses. All other Indian families send their children and mothers became different subject teachers. It was the closest they came to create a real school like atmosphere. If there are around 10-15 kids a school atmosphere could easily be created.

Bahirdar was very different. There were around 15-20 Indian families. But most of them were bachelors, forced bachelors (who left their wife/husband and children in India) newly married couples or Indians who came to Ethiopia, post retirement. Rangam’s daughter Rhea from POLY and Azaz Ahmed’s daughter Shareekha from PEDA campus were in the same age group.

POLY, kable 7 and PEDA campus were away from each other and getting these three kids to a place was a logistical night mare. And sending them alone to each other houses was not possible in Bahirdar at that time. It was safe but the children could not bear the teasing that came their way.  

Pranav and Sahithi had a five-year age difference and would fight like cats and dogs. Sahithi was slender as a reed but had an iron will to irritate both her mother and brother. She would continuously nag Pranav. She could not bear Padma showering even a vee bit of attention on him.

Pranav at that time was very interested in Mahabharat. Adding to his interest was the Mahabharat special Amar Chitra Katha comics that we had brought from India. Pranav loved the stories and was quite intrigued as why brothers fought with each other.

This was not to Sahithi’s liking. She wanted her mother to fawn on her and tell her Cinderella story. She went up to Padma who was reading out Mahabharat to Pranav, stomped her feet angrily and screeched “Stop reading him Mahabharat, it will make him fat”. And before Padma could recover she added “you better read us Cinderella story instead, that will make us thin”

This accusation stopped Padma in a mid-sentence. She garbled, recovered and asked sarcastically “well, well how does learning about Mahabharat make one fat?!”. Sahithi looked on haughtily “you told me that Bheema eats a lot and that he is large and big. Look at Anna, he too is becoming like BHEEMA!”.

“That I can understand” answered a stunned Padma “but how does listening to Cinderella make you thin”. Sahithi was irritated that her mother was not getting the logic. “Amma” she said gratingly “Don’t you SEE! Cinderella is thin and very beautiful. Show me one picture of Cinderella in the book where Cinderella is fat?”. Padma was too stunned to answer seeing Sahithi’s smug and “cat who had all the cream” expression.