5 Days Of Enjoyment
Edida Meher Manish
@Copyright
This story is based on my experiences during Pongal in Dontikurru, a typical village of the region popularly known as Konaseema. It is in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. This place is very beautiful with greenery all around and away from all the traffic jams and pollution of cities. The Konaseema region is famous for un-ending rows of coconut trees, green paddy fields and the canals passing through the villages. The situations and the characters are fictitious. I thank my parents, grandparents and uncle for encouraging me to write this story. Hope you enjoy this story.
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Dontikuru Rock Stars Group
“I am getting bored.” said Venkat
Venkat Tadi is 10 year old and he is from Amalapuram, a nearby town. He is the youngest of the group. He is a very cute boy and so innocent that anyone can fool him. Everyone in the group loves him very much. He is the most hurried guy in the group.
“Don’t be in hurry. Pongal is still two days away.” said Sarala.
Sarala Tadi is 14 year old and she lives in Kakinada, a beach town 50 kilometers from Dontikurru. She is a good girl and she is a big chatterbox in the group.
“I almost forgot that day after tomorrow is Pongal.” said Ramkrishna.
Ramkrishna Mukundha is 14 years old from Kandikupa, a village joined to Dontikuru not just geographically but also by the family relations. He is the local boy of the group. He has a well maintained body with big muscles. He is most hardworking guy in their group. His only weakness is that he always forgets things easily.
“You always forget things like a dementia patient. It should be a big hit with so much fun.” said Narayan.
Narayan Krishna is 15 years old from Chennai, Tamil Nadu as his father is working there. His hometown is in Andhra. He is the oldest in the group. He knows little-little Tamil. This fella is very intelligent . He is very thin and gives an impression that even gentle wind can make him fly.. He is a good dancer too.
“Like last time, from tomorrow we have to start collecting wood and money from everyone.” said Abhiram
Abhiram Chaitanya is 13 years old from London.. He is the most hi-tech boy in the group. He has a Dell Laptop, a PSP, an Apple IPod, an Apple IPad, etc. With love, everyone in the group call him Master Europe.
“Can I give you an advice? We can collect wood today and money tomorrow.” said Sarita.
Sarita Tadi is 13 years old and lives in a nearby village, Anantavaram. She always gives good advices to everyone. She is the only girl who thinks very much.
“I can’t come to collect wood today. It is already 5’00 pm. It will be dark very soon.” said Manika.
Manika Tadi is 12 years old and lives in Rajahmundry, the business capital for East Godavari district.. She is a good girl with good manners. She knows cooking and makes delicious food.
Narayan said, “We will collect wood and money tomorrow only.”
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1st Day...
Date: 12 Jan’ 2011
Narayan was the first one to get up and ready to collect money and dry wood. He first went to Ramkrishna’s grandparents’ house.
“Namaste, Tatagaru (grandpa). Has Ram woke up?” asked Narayan.
“Not yet, ra.” answered Grandpa.
“Can I wake him please? It’s urgent.” asked Narayan.
“Sure.”
“Hey Ram wake up. Ram wake up.”, said Narayan to Ramkrishna.
At last Ram opened his eyes a little and said with a sleepy voice, “Narayan, no one must have woken up till now as it is vacations.”
Narayan was going to say something when he heard Sarala’s voice from behind him.
She said, “Hey Ram, everyone is waiting for you outside. Even Venkat woke up before you.”
“OK I will be coming outside in half an hour.” said Ram.
He hurried to the bathroom and Sarala went out. Narayan did not go out as he was waiting for Ram.
After 5 minutes Ram came out of the bathroom and went to kitchen. His grandma came out of the kitchen and gave 5 idlies to him. Narayan first wished his grandma by saying Namaste and then went to Ram and asked him whether he could eat all 5 idlies easily.
He said, “Yes, Why? Can’t you eat 5 idlies?”
“No I can’t. I always eat only 1 idli.” said Narayan.
“That’s why you are so thin?” said Ram.
“Yeah.”, said Narayan.
Ram finished all the idlies and they both went out where all others were waiting. Subash uncle, Teja uncle, Prakash annaya (big brother) were also there.
Narayan went to them and asked why they were also here.
Prakash annaya said, “I thought you were collecting wood for the Bhogi Bonfire.”
“Yes we are.” said Ram.
Subash uncle said, “In my farm there are 3 small dead trees which may be useful. Any two of you can carry each tree. We will also help you in carrying wood.”
“Yes let’s go then.” said Sarala.
“I and Europe can carry the trees. Can you Master Europe?” said Ram
“Yes I can.”, said Abhiram.
They all went to Subash uncle’s farm by walk. When they reached the farm 3 trees were laid on the ground.
Venkat said, “These trees are very small that even I can carry them.”
“These may look small but their weight is too much for you to carry.”, said Teja uncle.
“I understand.” said Venkat.
Ram and Abhiram first picked up the smallest one. It was very light so they gave it to Narayan and Manika to carry.
They picked up another log which seemed smaller to them than the 3rd one. It was also light enough so they gave it to Sarala and Sarita.
Then picked up the third and final log. Its weight was correct for them as it was what they expected.
Venkat cried, “I also want to carry something.”
Prakash uncle gave him some small dry branches which had fallen down on the ground.
Venkat quickly took them and thanked Prakash uncle for his offer.
They all began their march towards their headquarters.
After 10 minutes they reached their headquarters.
The headquarters was an isolated house. In front of it there was a small ground where they could store the wood which they collected.
They threw the trees there. Venkat neatly placed his branches near the trees.
Sarala said, “Now we have to collect money from everyone.”
First they went to Sarala’s house where they got 200 rupees. Then they went to Abhiram, then Narayan, then Ram, then Manika, then Venkat and finally to Sarita‘s house from where they got 150 rupees from each house.
They went to Baba Tatagaru’s house where they got hundred rupees.
Then they went Krishnaya Tatagaru’s house where they got 120 rupees.
Then they went to Maliya ammamma (grandma) house where they got 50 rupees.
Balaji tatagaru, Jyoti ammamma, Ayyaparao tatagaru and many more gave us 100 rupees each.
Vishnu tatagaru lived in a big house. He is a big miser. He gave us only 5 rupees and said an unpopular dialog that was – ‘ENJOY’
We managed to collect approximately 4,000 rupees.
We were very happy. And we were waiting to spend all the money the NEXT DAY.
It had been 8’00pm so everybody went to their respective houses.
All dreaming what will happen tomorrow.
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2nd Day...
Date: 13 Jan’ 2011
This day everyone have been sleeping till 12 noon as everyone wanted to spend all night without sleeping.
First one to wake up was Sarala. She woke up all others. No one that day ate breakfast. They directly ate lunch and came out. Laxmi Aunty is a dance teacher in Kandikupa. She came to Dontikuru and taught the girls how to dance. The boys were planning what to do in the evening. They planned to buy kerosene from Katerikona and order Chicken Biryani from Amalapuram.
It was 6’00pm so all of them went to their houses and dressed up in nice clothes.
Narayan and Ram went to Prakash annaya’s house to take the biryani which they had got from Amalapuram.
All the children gathered at 7’00pm at Babji Tatagaru’s house. There was a big place where all the people could gather and children could dance.
First they lit the candles and placed them in a circular shape and every plate was placed under one candle. They began to eat the Chicken Biryani with raita and some soup. All the children were shocked to see Narayan eating plate after plate even being so thin. Everybody was clear that Narayan liked biryani very much.
After some time many people started coming.
The children had already brought two speakers and DVD player from Subash uncle’s house at 4’00pm.
They started playing the DVD with the first song of the movie ORANGE (a telugu movie). All the children started dancing with the first song Sydney Nagaram (a song from Orange). Narayan was the star of that day. He was the best dancer of that day.
Abhiram is a master in Western dance and robotic dance. He danced solo in songs like Orange lo ni O Baby (a song from Orange) and Zoom Zoom Roboduck (a song from Robot {a hindi movie}).
Sarala, Sarita and Manika danced for songs like Jorsey and Dheera Dheera (a song from Magadheera {a telugu movie}).
Venkat danced only in group dances as he did not know how to dance.
Ramkrishna was a hit maker in dances of songs My Love is gone and I Love You (both songs of Arya-2 {a telugu movie}).
After the dances Ramkrishna revealed his unknown talent of mimicry. He imitated the voices of Rajashekar Reddy (ex-chief minister of Andhra Pradesh), Chandra Babu Naidu (ex-chief minister of Andhra Pradesh).
It went on till 11:30 pm. It was a big hit and all of them enjoyed. They got big applause from everyone. After the program and entertainment the children shouted loudly ‘Dontikuru Rocks and Dontikuru Rock Stars rocked it’.After that everyone left the place except the children and Prakash annaya.
After some time Venkat’s and all the girls’ parents came to take their children away. Only Narayan, Abhiram, Ramkrishna and Prakash annaya were allowed to spend all the night without sleeping. They did not sleep till 12’00am by playing carom board.
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3rd Day... Part 1
Date: 14 Jan’ 11
The children were still awake at 12’00am also.
As the mosquitoes were coming in through the windows because of the tube light. They switched off the light.
After some time they heard some sound coming from outside.
It grew and grew. Abhiram went up to Prakash annaya and asked him what it was.
He said, “It must be a stray dog.”
“No, I don’t think it is a dog. I think someone is there to steal our wood.” said Narayan.
They were all afraid by this thought. They quickly switched on the light.
They saw some faces near the place where they stored the wood.
Ram recognized them with ease and said, “Hey Manu annaya, what are you doing here?”
“Err… nothing. We only came here to see that all of you are asleep or not.” said Tintu annaya who was standing with Manu annaya.
“How can we be asleep when guys like you are wandering near our headquarters?”, said Abhiram.
“O sorry man. We running short of wood in our village so we decided to steal from your village.”, said Manu.
“I can tell you a place where you can steal the wood. Do you know Vishnu tatagaru’s house?”, asked Ram.
“Yes.”, they said.
“Then listen. They told us that they had five dead trees in their house. They also told us not to steal them and if so they would be very angry. Now you can silently go to their house and steal all the 5 trees. You can keep 4 trees for you but we must get one for us.” said Ram.
“Yeah, it’s a nice deal. It’s OK.” said Tintu.
They left our headquarters and went to Vishnu tatagaru’s house.
After half an hour they came back to our house and kept two dead trees there.
They said, “You were wrong. There were 7 trees there. We managed to get all of them without making a single noise.”
“Thank you guys.” said Prakash annaya.
They left to their houses.
After some time Ram felt sleepy. He said, “Please wake me up in another half an hour. But after half an hour when we tried to wake him up he would say that he wanted to sleep another 5 minutes. After 5 minutes when we tried again to wake him up he would say that he wanted to sleep 5 minutes more. So no one now tried to wake him and allowed him to sleep all the day peacefully.
Abhiram took out his PSP which he had brought to play if he was bored. He and Narayan started playing the game Need For Speed. They played with it for 1 hour while Prakash annaya was seeing news in his mobile LG Optimus 1.
Then Abhiram showed Narayan and Prakash annaya his IPad and showed its applications. They played the music in Abhiram’s IPod for half an hour.
After managing some time pass with the gadgets, they looked at the clock. It was 4:30 am. Prakash annaya first went out of their head-quarters.
He came back in 5 minutes and said most of the elders have come out of their houses. He also said that Subash uncle has asked us to bring the dry wood out of the head-quarters to near the village well. He asked them to wake up Ram quickly.
They woke up Ram quickly and asked him to help him them in carrying the wood out of the head-quarters.
The girls had also come out of their houses to see the Bhogi Bonfire. They also helped the boys in carrying the wood near the village well.
When they kept the wood just beside the well, some people saw it and asked to move the wood and keep it at a distance from the well.
Soon all the people of our village had gathered near the village well. The boys arranged the wood properly and put kerosene on the wood . Subash uncle lighted a match-stick and threw it on the wood.
At once a big fire came from the woods. The children and some people gathered some branches and some dry fur from the coconut seeds and threw them in the fire. The children danced around the fire.
Then it was the time for throwing the Bhogi Danda (a garland made of cow dung). Everybody first went to their houses to have a bath and quickly returned to the Bonfire and threw the garlands into the fire. Everybody except Venkat threw the garland with ease. Venkat was very afraid of the fire.
Venkat said to his mother, “Amma (mother), Can you please throw this garland for me.”
Narayan said, “Venkat close your eyes and throw it. You will not feel anything.”
Venkat just did what he was told. The garland went flying into the fire.
Venkat said, “Amma, has it gone to the fire.”
His mother said, “Yes my dear it has gone.”
All of them clapped for Venkat. He was feeling like he was the hero of that day.
After some more minutes all the people went to their respective houses. Abhiram, Narayan and Ram were so tired that they quickly went to their house and laid on the bed till 1’00 noon.
They were dreaming what enjoyment awaiting for them once they wake up.
To Be Continued...
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