CHAPTER 2

Anjana had a picture perfect life till few years ago. She lived in Kanpur before her marriage, with her parents and an elaborate joint family in a huge mansion. It was a government bungalow which was allotted to her grandfather as he was the chief engineer in the electricity board, a very high and noble position in a small place like Kanpur in those days. She grew up in a fairly large family with uncles and aunts and cousins. The house was always full of laughter and noises. Festivals and family events were celebrated with extra enthusiasm. Anjana never knew what it is to be truly alone as she was always surrounded by cousins and other people. Even though her family was not extraordinarily wealthy but it had a comfortable life since a government job always came with certain perks. There were three servants to take care of the family and a government provided car, a white Ambassador, which was used on every weekend and on family picnics. The same white elephant of a car dropped Anjana and all the other kids in the family to school.

Her early years were full of a fun and laughter and the caring and sharing which is usually associated with such large families. She loved Kanpur, and she had probably never experienced what it was like to live somewhere else. To her, her world was her birth place and the village where she went every summer. She never had many friends as she had enough cousins who were her companions all the time, so going for a movie or an outing with friends was out of question. It was always fun to go to the bazaar with Natu and Nidhi who were the son and daughter of her father’s younger brother and also Anju’s favorite cousins. The three of them would go out every evening to the Shiv Mandir and then to enjoy Gokul’s Chaat which was famous all over Kanpur for being the most spicy chaat ever. To anyone else her life would have seemed too simple and boring but to Anju it was the best. She had all the people she ever loved right by her side and nothing that she ever needed was more than an arm’s distance away.
Her parents were her support system whom she loved immensely but she was closer to her mother than she was to her father who was a man of few words and strict discipline. He worked in a bank which was quite close to their home because of which he could spend ample time with the family. All the children in the family were afraid of him as he made sure that everyone got up early in the morning and went to school on time. He also made sure that every single child was given some or the other work to do so that they learnt the value of being self dependent. Every week he would allocate some work to the children which included tasks like cleaning their rooms, pruning the fences in the garden, cleaning the windows of the car etc. It was her mother who was the source of love and affection. She would at times save the children from her father’s discipline by occasionally helping them out with their allocated chores and preparing tasty dishes which disappeared the moment they were laid out on the table. She would often sing Anju to sleep when she found it difficult to do so. But her favorite activity was to oil Anju’s long hair and sing while she did that. Anjana wanted to be exactly like her mother when she grew up as she felt she was perfect in every way. She knew how to cook the most amazing food which was often the highlight of every celebration in the family, she knew how to sing people to sleep and was so full of love that all the children of the house wanted her to cook for them and came running to her if something went wrong rather than going to their own mothers.


Anjana loved spending her summers at her grandfather’s native village which was about five hours from Kanpur. It meant two months of non-stop fun in the village minus all the studies. Anju along with her cousins would go for a swim in the river. They had an orchard which had hundreds of mango trees and a few Jamun trees. They all would gather in the orchard or “Bagh” as they called it, in the afternoon when all the elders were taking their afternoon naps after lunch. They would play hide and seek or climb the trees or simply sit and enjoy the mangoes and jamuns from their orchard. She loved to wake up before sunrise every morning to go and sit by the river and watch the sun rise. The reflection of the rising sun in the flowing waters of the river always gave her a sense of peace and contentment. Because for her this was her world where she had a chunk of her own sky, sun, air and the flowing river and she could enjoy it all undisturbed in the early morning hours. To her it felt like god himself painted a canvas in all shades of green and blue and presented to her in form of this beloved spot where she sat everyday during those two summer months when she came to the village.
Once the vacations were over they would all come back to Kanpur and resume their routine. Anjana again got busy with her studies and her day to day life but she always waited for summers which would take her to the river again.

After she finished her schooling her grandfather wanted her to go Delhi to pursue her higher studies as he felt it was important for children in his family to get educated and follow their ambitions. But she on the other hand wanted to stay in Kanpur and finish her studies. What her grandfather didn’t know was that Anjana was not very ambitious. For her, her family was everything and so the thought of going away from it brought tears to her eyes. But her grandfather didn’t show any signs of letting her stay in Kanpur. He felt that the world was changing and that the kids needed to move out of the comfort zone and face the real world. Anjana on the other hand was terrified of big cities as she had often heard about bad things that happened to people there. She had often heard her father describing the life in Delhi as fast and she wasn’t exactly sure what it meant but she could figure out that people didn’t go and sit by the river or played under the mango trees. And she wasn’t sure if she would get Gokul’s chaat there. So, after much cribbing and crying Anjana’s bags were packed and she was sent to Delhi for graduation.

On the day she was to leave for Delhi her mother gave her a parcel and asked her to open it only in the train, which, she later realized was her favorite chaat. She also received many farewell presents from her cousins and other family members which ranged from new clothes to Pen sets and teary eyed good byes. Especially from Natu who wouldn’t let her go and clung to her tightly but a firm command from grandfather was enough to change his mind. She was accompanied by her father and grandfather to Delhi and to her college where she was to study. After completing the necessary formalities all three sat in the college canteen for some time and had lunch. Anjana though not hungry still ate as she was scared that her father might scold her for not eating. Once the lunch was over they got up and that’s when she realized it was time for them to leave for Kanpur. She couldn’t believe that she was being left alone in this big city all by herself and she hated her father and grandfather for leaving her there like that.
Once they left she was truly alone, and depressed so she headed for her hostel. From then on life changed completely. She was used to the languid pace of life in Kanpur and so the every day hustle and bustle and early morning que for bathroom in the hostel puzzled her...