Summer Diaries

Chapter-8

“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.”

It was usual Indian summer noon, quite hot, but the constant brisk breeze made the environment pleasant and beautiful. And then the clock struck two. The girl was sleeping on a charpoy, caressing her silky black hair, she looked up at the clock. She briskly got up and started getting ready to go out. Looking at her dreaming beauty, she declared that she is going out to meet her old friend and would return in an hour. Her mother smiled and advised her, to enjoy her time with friends without worrying too much about the kid. She walked out in a dignified gait leaving no dust behind.

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The clock ticked three in the noon. Boohoo! The girl was blubbering. The Grandmother came running from the kitchen and picked her up in arms. She was a half and year old charming girl with big black eyes and chubby cheeks, wearing a plain white frock. Grandma tried to appease her, saying that her mother would turn up soon. But to no avail, she kept wailing. After all it was the first time, she woke up without seeing her mother’s face and upon that she was missing from home too.

To soothe her bursting up, granny asked “Would you like to have a big ripe mango? She smiled and cupped her small palms to receive the heavenly fruit. Making her sit on the floor, grandma rushed to the backyard. There laid a bucket, full of mangoes, dipped in water. She quickly grasped two mangoes and came inside the room. The girl beamed, seeing the mangoes. She snatched them from her granny’s hand and starting eating them. In Indian villages, people eat mangoes with their hands, without slicing them.

Within half an hour, she finished two mangoes. Her face smeared with yellow mango pulp. She gazed at granny as if asking for some more. Granny grinned, seeing that lovely expression on her face and ran outside to bring some more for her. This process of getting mangoes by grandma and eating them up by the granddaughter, kept going until mama came home.

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As she set her foot inside the house, the girl came running towards her. To her horror, the child was wearing a yellow dress instead of white. She smirked seeing her face, which too had the design of yellow color. The girl excitedly told her mom that granny gave her mangoes to eat and she like an obedient girl ate them all 😛 .

Holding the child in her arms, she went inside the kitchen. She apologized to her mom for getting so late. She than asked her whether her daughter was troublesome. Upon hearing this her mother smiled and said “Mango is solution of every cribbing mama’s baby”.

Mother (Happily): “Guess, how much your little one adjusted in her small tummy?”

She (Smiling) : Not more than two, she generally doesn’t eat much.

Mother (Chuckled) : “This time you are wrong, darling, she had crossed an elderly appetite for mangoes”.

She (angrily): “What”? Tell me, how much she laid hands on?

Mother(Casually) : Just, ten.

She (Furious) : What?? Are you insane, why did you give her this much?? God knows, if something happens to her, his father is going to stop sending me for these vacations. And probably, he will kick me out of the home.

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The vacations passed smoothly and the time came for returning home. Father came for a day to pick them up and they headed back the next day. Two days after reaching home, the girl was sleeping in her father’s lap, suddenly she woke up and complained about having pain in her cheek. He touched her face and realized that she was having small inflammation.

And after a few days the inflammation turned into a big boil. He was furious with the mother for being so negligent with kids. The doctor suggested incision will be the instant and the best cure.

The day of incision arrived, it was a minor surgery procedure. Her mother went to the doctor accompanied by her uncle(father’s brother) as her father had to go urgently somewhere on a business trip. As soon as they reached the hospital, her uncle inquired the doctor whether this surgery will leave any mark on her cheek. The doctor gave an affirmative response saying that in future they can go for plastic surgery to remove the mark. Hearing this, his uncle started taunting her mother that it’s because of her that their beautiful daughter won’t be so beautiful after this operation.

The operation got over after an hour, but, yes, it left a mark on her face forever. Now when she fills any OMR form, in the Identification mark column she writes “ a mark on left cheek”.

The mark

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Though her father never stopped them from going on vacations to their heaven. Neither were their adventures of being mangolicious got stopped nor the occurrence of  small boils .

One summer picture when me , my brother and my cousin had a boil 😉

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To be continued …..

Please read the other chapters if you have missed them from below :

Chapter-1

Chapter-2

Chapter-3

Chapter-4

Chapter-5

Chapter-6

Chapter-7