peaceful

Mom called me early yesterday to let me know that she and dad had to go to our ancestral house in the village suddenly. It is an and big house with about 18 rooms, 4 kitchens, an enclosed courtyard, a pond among other things. It is a family house that I believe my grandfather and his 5 brothers used to share. It was really big happy family staying over there. Slowly as the family grew, it started branching out. People started leaving towards the city in search of a better life and more opportunities. Rooms started getting locked and last traces of family tree of each of the 6 brothers started disappearing from the house. As of today, descendants of only two brothers (one of whom is my grandfather) are staying full-time in the house. My grandfather had 10 children - 5 sons and 5 daughters, of which only 2 sons stay full time in the house. Even their kids have now moved out to the city looking for higher education and jobs. Last week my cousin had a child so her mother - one of my aunts from the village house went to be with her daughter for a few days. The other aunt's father expired so she had to leave and be with her family. So my parents went to stay at there and take care of things. I remember at one point of time, the house used to be full of people. My dad himself remembers staying with close to 35-40 people in that house on a regular day. Today, when they went, someone had to come and open the locks to let them in. When I visited last, I saw parts of the house in a bad condition. Part of the floor of the first floor corridor was slowly giving in. A few days ago, it completely collapsed. The room under that, not able to take the weight, came crashing down with it. The rooms were locked for a while and nobody was hurt but it does bring a sad emotion to me.

I have fond memories of the house and most of my summer vacations were spent there as I was growing up. I loved running through the paddy fields, playing in the village playground, feeding the cows and walking barefoot on the brick-paved streets through the bamboo canopies. I loved sitting by the river as the sun set and walking back home in complete darkness (electricity reached there about 15 years ago). I liked going to the fields early in the morning and returning back with a basketful of fresh vegetables and fruits that were cooked for lunch the same day. I liked walking behind my dad or uncle to the village bazaar, carrying the a nylon bag as they shopped for the daily needs. A lot of such memories...I can probably go on and on...Our generation has totally moved out of that place but we probably would be the last who would have any attachment to the village and the house. It will be tragedy to see the big house, once so much full of life and activity getting lost into oblivion.