My father had seen the freedom struggle right since the 1920s I can try and imagine the exhilaration he must have felt listening to Nehru's "tryst with destiny" speech "at the stroke of midnight" 14/15 August, 1947.
His patriotic fervour in the post-independence years remained with him always inspite and despite the swings of political brinkmanship and upheavals during the Emergency years. I remember as a high school kid, campaigning and doing my bit for the Jaiprakash Narayan led revolution which led to the formation of the Janata party led coalition government.
When we moved to our new house in 1978, for some years we lived with the shabbily distempered walls and their chalk-like 'exudous' clinging onto our clothes and hands, when we brushed them accidentally or leaned against them.
But not for long. Father had been toying with the idea for some time and provisioning for it, I guess and soon he commissioned our family carpenter/painter all-in-one vinayak to paint and furnish the house.
The main hall was a light golden brown colour, the brightest of all the rooms.
But his choice of the colours for the other rooms made a statement few would care to emulate or even think of.
The bedroom was a deep SAFFRON the ceiling WHITE. Then came the passage which was tiled BLUE.
And then came the Kitchen which was painted in deep GREEN.
Father was incorporating the colours of the national flag of our country in the colour-scheme of the house.
Plastic emulsion, the best available at that time was used and Vinayak was instructed to repeat layers of the paint to get the right hue ,shade and depth.
Every year, just before the holy month of Ramadan, father would set about with a ladder, bucket of water with Lux soap dissolving in it and several wiping cloths, 'washing' every inch of the painted ceilings and walls of the house.
The exercise would continue for a whole day and sometimes the next day too. We would all pitch in and do our bit. At the end of it the walls would look sparkling and new, the fragrance of Lux soap lingering for many days to come.
This was an annual ritual which continued year after year until father's death in 1997. Thereafter, my doctor brother moved out with his family to a house of his own. The responsibilities of looking after the house fell on me whilst mother took care of Rukaiya (Facebook #RukaiyasPage ) my sister with special needs with a history of medically induced spasticity with mental retardation.
Mother expired in 2012. The house was maintained with necessary cleaning activities like sweeping and mopping of floors and occasional brushing for cobwebs, but after mothers death it became increasingly difficult to maintain the house, especially after my sister Rukaiya suffered a shattering fall which fractured her left femur. This was in Nov-Dec 2012.
There were fewer opportunities to clean the house as my 24x7 responsibilities with sister Rukaiya left me little time..
The years passed and then the cummjnity 2017 Upliftment program came to our rescue. Cupboards, safes, files, papers, clothes, fixtures - everything in the house was examined and there was a kind of mass disposal, even of furniture. The cleaning took place next and then the painting.
Although Lustre paint was suggested, it was decided to use distemper.
A bright creamish brown colour for the Hall, white ceilng. There was an attempt to have the same colour for the whole house. But I put my foot down and insisted on retaining father's original colour scheme
But the result was to put it mildly, disappointing.
The Saffron of the bedroom degraded to PINK.
And the Green of the Kitchen was hues lighter than the earlier Green.
Moreover since it was distemper I could not wash or wipe clean the stains made by Rukaiya.
In today's social and political context these colours of our national flag have become all the more important and I shall strive my best to restore them as during my father's times.
No comments:
Post a Comment