Hanuman Jayanti

Earlier today ..over our morning cuppa ..sitting on her bed ..pouring over the papers ..we chatted.

Ma and I.

She a Hanuman bhakt ..I had wished her on the Jayanti today. She tells me she’d fast every Hanuman Jayanti as a kid. Only one meal in a day, and that too without any salt.

‘Aaj vrat nahin rakha?’ I ask.

‘Nahin!’

‘Kyun?’ I look up from the Sudoko am trying to crack.

‘Phukk badi lagdi hai !’ ..as she stuffs a गिरायी of meththi parantha into her mouth.

As a kid, her prayer for the vrat used to be on lines of ..

‘Exam vich paas ho jaaon!’

‘Majj theda na todey!’
(Majj - cattle
Theda - a mud boundary wall of kinds in their village house)

A stray cow or buffalo would knock down the mud wall often ..and little Kamlesh’s job used to be to put it back up.

‘Buss ..ajj theda na tutt’an dena, Hanuman ji 🙏’ ..

..I found myself smiling as I imagined her vrat prayer.

Abhi, right now as I type this ..she is reciting Hanuman Chalisa. Aloud.

(image from the net)