“Hume alag bottle chahie”
“Sab share kar rahe hain, tumko bhi karna hoga.!”
“NNNNOOOOOOOO.!!”
And before I knew it, a full fledged hard slap came across my face with all the five fingers imprinted to the core.
Then came another.
The world stopped.
All eyes at me.
What just happened.?
I didn’t care. I had my eyes fixed on the prize.
‘My own Coke Bottle’
Like I had said earlier.. Her highness doesn’t share!
The little kid I was, I started throwing all kinds of fits. Punching her back, lying on floor, shrieking like a bat gone bat-crap crazy.
And the elder sister she was, she didn’t miss a chance to prove it. She moved across all angles to click the worst pictures while I cried.. which are still in family album! So many of them..
That’s one memory of Appu Ghar no one can take away from me.
Appu Ghar had been my favorite place growing up.
I’m from Allahabad but one of my aunts lived in Delhi and we would visit often, three-four times a year(to my recollection). And whenever we were in Delhi, Appu Ghar was at the top of the list. My list. This place was nothing short of both heaven and haven. It was an escape, an oasis of happiness where all the scoldings and lost toys and sadness were bid goodbye at the gate.
Going to Delhi, meeting cousins was the sidelined stuff.. this was the part I always looked up to... (P.S. If any of you is reading, please don’t kill me!)
Oh the rides.! For a child, they were uncountable, but the favourites are still etched to the heart.. Crazy Cars(I had to sit in the passenger seat always because I was never old enough to drive a toy car! Said who? My elder Sister), My Fair Lady where I was never allowed to go because my elder sister was scared.. and I’m the younger one so how could I dare!), but when it came to Splash, we would all stand in queue for hours in a breeze( now I believe it was maybe just half an hour or so) for that one ride.. and it always had to be the last ride. For me it was the jackpot.
And let’s not forget the Maggi.! The overly-priced-ridiculous-quantity Maggi. But sitting on stairs with everyone and ordering it on loop was always a job well done.
In retrospect, these were the best times as we were allowed to be the crazy children that we were. I believe all my siblings were the obedient ones.. I was the rebel. And this was my arena.
Now, time is such that I feel drained or stressed by one thing or the other.. Currently, with the lockdown.. it’s just chores-office-chores-sleep-repeat. No work-from-home for me. Now, Netflix also gets my attention to serve just as background music. It’s not a happy marriage anymore (Question- If I’m using someone else’s subscription, can I still call it a marriage..? )
Also, given my capacity to over think, I can take even an iota of thought to the size of Mt. Everest. I’m so darn good at it. It’s hereditary LOL.
It’s late, sleep still eludes me and the chain of thoughts.. they just keep going in circles.. like ‘My Fair Lady’. Up and down and round and round... never leaving the pivotal point (this time, my head).
I just wish I could lose a screw here and there so all would collapse and thud!
Silence.
Pin drop silence.
It’s ironical that the ride I tried to go in desperately every time, I’m trying to get out of it even harder.
Come to think of it, those rides were a trailer of what’s to come. Columbus- the ups and downs, Crazy Cars- of the innumerable bumps, Haunted house- how unprecedented, scary and shit-head it’s gonna be, My Fair Lady- it’s all one freaking giant loop.!
I bought the ticket, the band is still on my wrist.. And I have to ride.. All of them. Like I did when I was a child. It doesn’t matter if I throw up in the process.
A rebel then, a rebel now.
Anyways, Appu Ghar was closed in 2008. I don’t even remember when I visited it last.
I’d like to, though, for a final rendezvous. To be in that haven again, to bid goodbye to the rejections, lost relations & sadness at the gate again, to be that old again when the only major crisis of my life was to get my own bottle of coldrink..
I still want a my own bottle alright..
just not coldrink anymore though.
But I’m sure of two things, firstly, I’d still love to go on that ride and take an actual spin instead of the one in my head. Secondly, I can get all the Coldrink in the world without having to share..LOL
And talking about the one earlier.. I didn’t get my own bottle, even after the slaps..!
Unlike what I said,
Her Highness had to share after all.
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