Recently a friend of mine has left for Pune to start her "hostel life". Brought back vivid memories of my own days in hostel in Pune and also got me wondering what all those people who were a part of my daily life then were doing now.One such person was Maushi.Maushi was a shrivelled emaciated 70 year old who used to wash clothes for those girls who cared to pay some extra money to get their clothes washed by her.Most girls though were in a dilemma whether to get the clothes washed by her or not.She looked too frail to wash clothes and we were filled with guilt to let her wash clothes at her state, but at the same time that was her only source of income.Maushi was an integral part of our lives those four years.We had the language barrier between us, though eventually we did pick up a little bit of marathi. But in the initial days we used to converse with her without either side comprehending anything.The first sentence in marathi, that we hostellers picked up was "Mala marathi yet nahin..", which literally means, I dont understand marathi. Whenever maushi went on with her incomprehensible stories in marathi, we used to say that to her and she would be just too amused to hear us telling her in marathi that we dont understand the language.Mausi frequently blessed us and prayed for "changla nawra" or good husbands for us.One particular day, before the exams,she blessed a girl with changla nawra, when the girl replied indifferently "Mausi pehle exam pass karne ka ashirvad do.Exam pass nahin kiya toh accha nawra kahan se milega?". I dunno what exactly mausi deciphered out of that, but she nodded and went away smiling.One particular winter vacations, we were packing our bags to leave for home, when maushi came to our room and said "Aga, mala sweeeter de na?".She aksed us to get sweaters for her from home for her. The winters in Pune is quite chilly and I did notice that she dint have any woollens,apart from a torn shawl.On returning from home, I gifted a sweater to her.I noticed within a few days that she still did not wear any sweaters.I soon observed that the her grandson was wearing the one I had given. I questioned her why she had given it away to her grandson when she replied very innocently,"Such fancy things dont suit me, I prefer my shawl."[I got that translated by a maharastrian hostel-mate].One day,we in our room were short of cash.We had just a few rupees with us and had decided to go to the bank the next day.Coincidently the same day, maushi came to us in the evening asking for 10 rupees "Mala peesha de na?...daah rupiya ".In a very embarassed tone we replied, that we did not have any. She went away dissapointed and am sure not convinced that we did'nt have money.Next few weeks, I did not catch sight of mausi. I wondered what happened to her, when one fine day I again spotted her in the same corridoors of the hostel,smiling and chattering away.She had gone to her village for a vacation :).
The day I left the hostel, my friends saw me off and it was quite a sentimental moment all of us in tears and hugging each other.But mausi stood at the background waving with the same cheerful guileless smile on her face.I hope you are well mausi, wherever you are.
8 comments:
beautiful :)).reminds of this cycle rickshawallah who used to do the rounds in my college. A very polite and sweet guy, always ready to take the students wherever they had to go. I always had a nice chat with him whenever i got to take a ride on his rickshaw. He used to always talk of plans to educate his son and daughter well. I hope they are doing well.
Great writing.
@ soumya - hee haw :)
@ chaos - yeah buddy and thanks :)
@ david - Thanks a tonne! :)
i am just random blogger, going through different blogs, but you last post made me a bit nostalgic in many ways than one.
I remembered our maushi who used to come once a week to our hostel to wash clothes
a bucket for 20 rs, till the point the washing machine came. She used knock on my door and ask kapde ahe ka.. i could not say i washed it in the machine , some how every time i managed to say, mausi ata nehi ahe.. nantar deto mi.
well my marathi was never good but by then i was 3 years of fergusson college behind me, when i went for PG in Gokhale Institute, my marathi was broken but couold understand.
initial years was a struggle though
some how your hostel reminded me of our quasi co -ed hostel in gokhale institute, hence could not stop myself from commenting
miss pune though
i am just random blogger, going through different blogs, but you last post made me a bit nostalgic in many ways than one.
I remembered our maushi who used to come once a week to our hostel to wash clothes
a bucket for 20 rs, till the point the washing machine came. She used knock on my door and ask kapde ahe ka.. i could not say i washed it in the machine , some how every time i managed to say, mausi ata nehi ahe.. nantar deto mi.
well my marathi was never good but by then i was 3 years of fergusson college behind me, when i went for PG in Gokhale Institute, my marathi was broken but couold understand.
initial years was a struggle though
some how your hostel reminded me of our quasi co -ed hostel in gokhale institute, hence could not stop myself from commenting
miss pune though
it was relly touchy,the way u express brought tears in my eyes .
@zico_sg and a big yawn - yess Pune is a very missable[dnt ask me whether this is in a dictionary] place!!
@ thanks a tonne shraddha
I had almost forgotten maushi or ajji- whatever we used to call her .. those days came bk to me gushing as I came across ur post .. those days were really wonderful, i still miss them !
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