Echoes of a Ruined Rewind

Tale nostalgia

Meeta was barely ten years old and Richa eight. They had never stayed away from their parents.

Their father’s maternal cousin, Mangesh who retired as a Colonel, his wife Smriti, their teenage daughter Aditi and son Ashu were unusually fond of them. Mangesh and Smriti were strict and seemed authoritative to them. The girls weren’t used to strict mannerisms.

Mangesh and his family had settled down in their newly constructed home recently after his retirement. There was no one close in the vicinity except the girls’ family. The two families were in two towns around 50 kilometres away from each other. While the girls’ parents didn’t own any vehicle, Mangesh owned an ambassador which enabled his family to visit his younger cousin quite often.

The girls were naive. They were simple and their beauty glowed in their eyes. Intelligence reflected in their body language. Both were attached to each other and held each other’s hand while going anywhere.

Smriti got fond of the girls with her frequent trips and decided to take them home that summer for a few days soon after their exams. Their hesitant mother couldn’t resist – Smriti was quite elder to her, and her stern and commanding ways didn’t allow her to break through and stop them from going along. The girls didn’t understand anything of what was happening to them. They otherwise stayed away from Smriti, but here everything was happening too fast.

On the way, Smriti started a conversation wanting to know their thoughts, habits, liking for travel, fun, etc. Meeta mentioned one of the beaches they frequented during their annual stays at their maternal grandparents home. Smriti made fun of her after deliberately mispronouncing the place. Meeta then told her that they would miss their school friends and neighbours whom they promised to play with. Smriti played it down and said, instead she could befriend their cats and play with them. Meeta noticed it all and stayed silent after that. Richa never spoke much with Smriti.

The couple resided in a big bungalow in the Defence Colony. The kids’ home was a decent two bedroom home. They were bewildered upon arriving. Excitedly, they went around the entire house and long backyard, then to the front yard and then not finding Aditi and Ashu, took a corner in the long living room and sat hand in hand. Their uncle, Baji, as he was fondly called, in his unique sense of humour, with a subtle warmth in his stern voice said, “Enjoy your days here, okay?” The girls smiled and nodded, acknowledging the difference in behaviours in the two individuals.

The aunt got too excited to cook a few special dishes for them. However, they weren’t accustomed to them. Their mother cooked simple dal, chawal and a variety of delicious vegetables and curries in lentils and pulses. At other times, she made mouth watering idli sambar, dosa chutney, utthapam, and different kinds of vada, etc. They didn’t know what chicken or eggs were. An egg omelette was a Greek word to them. So was chicken kheema and soup, etc. While Smriti was overexcited about serving French toast and cheese rolls for breakfast, the kids remained hungry after throwing up all what they forcibly ate. She tried preparing different dishes for lunch and dinner. The kids were too scared to even try anything new. The lady didn’t understand why they didn’t eat what she, in her opinion, lovingly prepared for them. In no time, she frowned and shouted. They wept. Their mother wasn’t aware. There were no mobile phones in those days. There was a landline, but they didn’t have one at home at that time.

The girls stayed in each other’s company all the time. It was just a couple of days. Their laughter stopped. They then responded only with a yes or a nod. The aunt noticed a lot of lice in their hair and massaged some medicine into their scalp, putting the girls promptly to sleep. While she felt guilty about the girls not having eaten well, the musty smell of lice in their scalp also disturbed her. She bathed them the next morning. They didn’t like it and preferred bathing on their own. Smriti frowned and screamed, “You have no manners, and no discipline.” They helplessly cried again.

They were looking for a way out, some escaping to find peace. Suddenly, their attention was split, they heard songs being played in a bedroom. They quietly peeped inside to be closer to the sound and the source. At home, they heard songs on the radio. But here, they saw an instrument, inside which something was moving. Smriti came and pressed a button and the song began playing fast. She then long-pressed another, and another song played slow. They observed her actions. She then removed the moving item and placed another inside. Different songs played. The girls were sharp enough. They were quick to learn a few new things just observing their aunt. This episode was enough to make their day.

The next morning, the couple was stepping out, leaving the kids alone at home. Aditi and Ashu were away at their maternal grandparents’ place during the time. Smriti approached the kids, “We will return soon. Do not open the main door, do not step out, stay inside.” Meeta nodded.

Soon, the couple left. The girls stepped in the bedroom where the device was kept. By now, they knew it was called a cassette player and that the moving thing was a cassette. They had also read the name “Satte pe satta” on the cassette cover and enjoyed the songs the previous day. It was as if both had decided. They didn’t utter a word and silently walked towards it. It was as if they read each other’s minds. They looked for the same tape on the wooden rack, placed it inside the player and switched on the player. Their favourite songs started playing. The girls were serenely happy. They didn’t know how to dance and sat on the bed listening to the music. Within minutes, the song, “dukkhi pe dukkhi ho” started playing, and the next one came. They had heard it before on the radio and loved it. They wanted to play the same one again. So, they pressed the same button that their aunt did. The song played again and moved to the next. They pressed the rewind button again. Their mood revived on the high energy song and they rewound the song multiple times. Every time, they quietly sat enjoying their favourite song. Suddenly, something happened. The tape crackled. They then pressed the forward button to get to the next songs. It crackled even more. Not knowing how to handle the situation, they stopped the player, pulled the door and quietly sat on the living room sofa.

After some time, the couple arrived. They found the tapes disorganised. Noticing the change, Smriti observed the main switch on. She switched on the player only to find all songs crackling. She removed the cassette. It was all jumbled up and tangled. She carefully wound it again, but to no avail. The tape was completely mangled. She knew who the culprits were.

Smriti called Baji in, “These kids have no manners. They have spoiled the tape. I had no idea they would come here and tamper with the cassette player. Can’t say, what else they meddled with.” “Never mind, they are kids. Must have got bored. Leave it, we will get a new one,” Baji tried to pacify her. “Let’s drop them home,” she commanded. She didn’t say anything to the kids.

She packed their bags and dressed them up instantly. Baji took out the car. Smriti gently brought them out holding one on each side. Again, they didn’t have any time to guess what was happening to them. There was silence – all along the way. Before they realised, they reached their destination.

They quietly walked inside the house. They knew what they had done – something, which angered their aunt. But they weren’t feeling guilty. Their mother opened up to Smriti, “You have come so soon? All well vahini (sister in law)?” “Ask them only what they did. They are very naughty, I didn’t imagine they would go to this length. We are in a hurry and leaving now, will come again later.”

It was around noon. They didn’t have anything on that summer afternoon. On any other regular day, they never left before having a meal. The mother was perplexed. The girls were silent.

After they left, the mother asked the girls, “What happened there? What did you both do?” “Nothing,” Richa replied this time. “Nothing? Why then did she drop you back in just four days? She took you for a week. Did you not want to stay?” “No,” replied Meeta.

The girls remained calm. Yet, there was something the mother couldn’t decipher. One thing she noticed was that they no longer scratched their heads. She probed them to know, but to no avail. She noticed the lice had disappeared.

The mother had no clue. She let them be and carried on with her routine.

Smriti was never the same with the kids again. It was the first and the last holiday for the kids at her place.

But they had found their solution there – their escape from a boring house where there was ample space but no warmth, a table fully laid out with dishes, but food forced to eat! The lady of the house was like a task master. There was no accommodative nature. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. They had learnt a few new things. They learnt how to rewind the tape. They learnt of a device called cassette recorder and player and how to operate it successfully. They asked their father to buy them one, and listened to various kinds of music to their hearts content for many many years until compact discs arrived.

One evening, as the kids recollected childhood memories with their parents, they took the opportunity to narrate the ordeal and the cassette player mishap to them. They described in detail how they were forced to eat what they never ate before, how their lice disappeared, and how the tape got mangled. They said they weren’t guilty about what happened because they didn’t do it deliberately. But they felt bad it happened. While the mother called it a mischief, the father found it an act of innocent endeavour.

Years later, Smriti happened to meet the girls who had grown into beautiful women, and asked their mother, “Are they still the same or changed?” “They have changed, they have grown wiser, they know how to respond effectively in any situation.” Smriti stayed mum. The girls later learnt Ashu had revolted against her and relocated abroad.

While they grew up, they laughed at the incident as an escape route from the disgruntled aunt on that uneasy holiday and how they felt happy after mangling up the tape. All the negative energy was released into the tape, that’s why the tape mangled and they were back to normal. They reasoned.