The Warmth of Assam

The evenings are cold here – about 9 to 10 degrees (I can almost hear the Delhi junta scoff and term 10 degrees as almost warm weather!) Nevertheless, the cold evenings are a good time for… bonfires!

The family I live with has been lighting a bonfire almost every evening since I arrived. This is the time when all of them gather together and have quiet conversation. I have been invited to join them a couple of evenings, and these have been some of my most memorable times here so far.

The first evening they asked me to join them, about 3-4 days back, Uncle (that’s how I address the head of the family) narrated experiences from his youth to me. He told me about the year he spent in Madras – and we both lamented about how they speak little or no Hindi in the south! Aunty (his wife) pitched in from time to time in Assamese. The conversations between Aunty and me are absolutely hilarious. She understands Hindi, but can’t speak it. So she talks to me in Assamese and I reply back in Hindi. The children of the house (there are three – two older daughters and a son) find these exchanges absolutely delightful and usually gather around to help translate between the two of us.

Today, Aunty asked me to join them again. While warming my toes, I had two hours of lovely conversation with them. I told them about how I had shared pictures of the house with everyone back home and they gave me a lot of ideas about what else I should capture on the camera:

-Uncle suggested that Aunty drape me in her set of traditional Assamese attire (called Saader-Mekhaala)

-Unanimous suggestion of me washing clothes/utensils

-Aunty especially insisted on a picture of me using the hand-pump (she laughed and mimed my vigorous actions too, to emphasise her point!)

One common topic that often crops up is how life in Bombay is different compared to Chhaygaon. They wanted to know more about my house today and I explained how space is limited in the city so we live in apartments. Aunty was amazed that we live on the 5^th floor and the young son, Kishore, tried to estimate how high that would be by pointing to various trees around (Kishore is quite a character – he is in the 7^th standard, always finding excuses to skip homework and sings Kolaveri at least once every morning!)

Next came the highlight of the evening – Assamese lessons for me! I have been trying to pick up a few useful sentences from Raman, so today was the time to showcase what I had learnt. I recited one-by-one what I knew and we all laughed when I struggled with some pronunciations. Kishore then took up the task of becoming my tutor and taught me a lot of vocabulary until his sisters stopped him because he was teaching me incorrect words!

So, yes, the evenings are cold. But there is the bonfire to warm me. And more than that, there is the warmth of the people itself, which lingers on for a long, long time J

Zui (assamese for fire)... And that's Shivani, the younger daughter (she is in the 10th standard)