The Old House By The Roadside

"Time change, people change" I often heard people say, either whimsically or philosophically, but for the first time I hear it I don't know what it really means and had no idea the toll it would have on human emotions and feelings as I do now. Change, as it appears, is the only constant thing today. Like old and withered leaves gave way to new leaf and leaflet, everything around us has been replaced by one form or another. It’s heart-rending to see no more of those familiar faces you recognised and known growing up. Time too flies, and with it many things are flown away to obscurity but some refuse to go away and got etched in our memory.

Everything we see in and around Salbung today has a story to tell. Once the lush green surrounding, with thickets and bushes, stood now bare and empty. Salbung- Kholmun Road a.k.a. Upa Letkhoneh Road (named after the man this story centres around) once had eucalyptus trees, standing tall and waving in the wind, all along its winding path. No house had any fencing, except an array of bushes, or any iron or tin-sheet gate as it has of now. "Me thah/ dop" (sharing or exchange of curry) was once very much in vogue. It was once a common sight to see someone with a bowl in hand, with mouth-watering aroma emanating, coming in and out from the neighbour’s house. The classic example of bonding and close knit family we once had been. I, for one, may be a regular with a bowl in my hands coming out from The Old House by the Roadside.

There is one such story woven around The Old House by the Roadside (TOHTR) which the present tenants may not know. Once in that house lived my grandfather (Hepu) and grandmother (Hepi) and in due course of time my elder brother. Those were happy times and I cherished that time of Salbung and to me, personally, it remains the ‘Golden Age’ in its 50 year history. One simple reason is that Salbung’s founder-chief, my maternal grandfather, Upa Letkhoneh Haokip was in the pink of health, strong and sturdy, and full of energy and life.

We had stayed in many houses within Salbung as tenants until we lived and settled in our present home. While we were staying in ‘Sahlang-veng’ at our old Pute-inn I often went to TOHTR. Hepu would buy me sweets (candy) or sonpapri sold by door-to-door vendors and some other time he would give me money to buy ‘nehthei’ (eatables). I remembered once he tried to give me two or five rupees note (cash) but I insisted him to give me coins instead. To a child as old as 3/4 years, four 50 paise coins were dearer than a single five rupees note once. The juggling and colliding noises those coins made, inside my pocket, when I run around and the attention it invoke from my peers was music to my ears and a joy I can’t simply explain.

As there were only few houses in 'Sahlang-veng' that time and very less children of my age to play with, at every opportune time I would come down and play with the kids living in and around the roadside. We would run amok in Tintong phailei and play around until my brother would come back from D. M. Ray School. I heard a story that as he was still small and above all, weak and frail he would usually stop by at TOHTR on his way to and fro from school. There were times I was too tired and would often sleep on the wooden sofa set while watching T.V. (Doordarshan) with Hepu. I still remembered the wooden sofa set in the drawing room, it had golden-silk cushion-cover and Hepu would not let anyone sit, including I, if they put their feet on top of it. Being an ex-service man, he was a man full of discipline and authority. Such gentleman he was, he wanted everyone in his house to follow suit. When it was time to go home my brother with his heavy school bag would dragged me. Sometime Hepu would drop us home on his humber cycle.

I often take a tour of the many pictures including black & white hanging on the wall of TOHTR. No art gallery in the world would fascinate me more as I take a sneak preview at each picture. I bet I'll still do if I find them hanging on the wall now. I like the framed-pictures of my mom and her siblings with Hepu and Hepi. I liked the suit Hepu dons and the sweater my mom wears in that picture. Other pictures where my uncles flaunt their bell bottom pants would always tickle my funny bone. What was in vogue or fashionable at their time was already a faux pas then. Another picture in which Hepu poses with his friends in front of a resting helicopter was most fascinating.

There was another picture, I really admired, of Hepu flashing his 3-0-3 licensed rifle with Hepi sitting beside him nonchalant to Hepu's grin of satisfaction. I can't wait to hold the rifle like the way he does but I never had the chance to do so. Before I was old enough to lay my hands on it, he sold away… for the better, according to him.

Besides the pictures, there were several portraits of Samuel Arts…the portrait of a traditional Kuki village was praise worthy. Each time I saw, the zeal to become a painter or an artist grew stronger in me and I had since then, wanted to paint as good as him one day. But unfortunately, that remains a distant dream. There were Wall-hanging with English Bible verses on it. Some of the verses were “Rejoice in the Lord” "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" and "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want". There was one portrait where the words "Home Sweet Home" was beautifully painted and it took me many years to get what it says.

I also remembered, there was a smiling Brooke Shields’s poster pasted on the wall. I only look at that picture when nobody is around and only when I had the courage to do so. This trait of mine, I think, is deeply ingrained in me even till today.

                                                                                       

To the right from the entrance of TOHTR, there were wooden almirah full of books. As a child, I always thought that my uncles read all those books pages by pages and wished I could read them too. Hepu once showed me a book with pictures about Indo-Pak war, where dead bodies were scattered on the ground and vultures feeding on them. A close-up picture of a dead baby gave me nightmares for many a times.

During that time (early 90’s) TOHTR was the first to have a T.V. set all over Salbung and the only available channel was Doordarshan. There was nothing much to watch but our eyes (the kids) were glued to the set even when there was only ‘black and white dots’ on the screen. We named it 'changpah' as the dots look like ‘grains of rice’ flashing across the screen. When a programme was inching closer to relay, a vertical VIBGYOR colour would appeared on the screen but that didn't keep us away from watching. In fact, we would choose a colour for oneself on the basis of 'first say, get it' (on the line of “first come first serve”). I always chose red, I've no clue even now what prompted me to choose so. For all I know was, I often throw tantrums if I didn't get the red poppins when Hepu or my mom dole out the multi-coloured candy pellets. Whenever there was ‘power-cut’, we would just sit and wait for the power to return and played ‘Find a word or letter’ from the pictures, Wall-hanging, posters, mementoes and calendars in the drawing room. When power returns we would screamed with ecstasy at the top of our voices. I still do some time even now; Old habit, in fact, dies hard. And whenever the picture on the T. V. screen was not crystal clear due to bad reception, my brother and I would go out and turn the antenna pole while Hepu keep watch. Until he said, “ok” we would turn the iron-pipe pole clock-wise and anti-clockwise many times over.

Although I didn't have the chance to live in TOHTR, I remembered, I always 'feel at home' under its roof. I vividly remembered one night after I slept on the sofa, my brother came all the way just to take me home. He holds my hand and with droopy eyes and tired legs, we walked home all the way to our home at sahlang veng. It was a full moon night and there was no power. As we trudge along, I could see with my half-opened eyes that many homes were already fast asleep and we could hear the snoring from the road. Those home still awake were dimly lit and the lantern-light from the houses were peeping through the opening in the wall.

At one point, I became too sleepy to walk any farther so my brother put me on his thin, bony back and gave me a piggyback ride. Upon his back I would asked him, from time to time, how far we'd reached and he would tell me we'd reached x,y,z house and I would further asked him “are we now nearer to 'hepu te inn' or our house?”. He replied, “from here hepu te inn is nearer” and I sighed “uff! Still a long way to go”. This may be the origin of measuring a distance between one destination to another in our family parlance as we still often say it is about such distance from hepu te inn to such and such house. Thanks to the classic movie “The Mocking Bird” I recollect this piggyride back home, I already forgot, not because there was any piggyride scene in the movie but because of the cinematographic  scenes and settings which is akin to the then Salbung.

TOHTR remains very close to my heart as it was the epitome of ‘Home Sweet Home’. It was under the roof of this house I find solace and comfort as in one instance my aunty (L) Ngailhing took us away from the wailing and crying when my younger brother Kaiminthang passed away suddenly while we were staying as tenant at ‘Pu Paokho inn’, the present plot of land belonging to Pa, Kaithang.  She made us sit in the drawing room around the glowing warm brazier (charcoal heater or meiphu), gave us towel to dry ourselves as it was drizzling on our way. Hepi offered us a warm cup of tea. It was in this house I came to know what is love and care and the value of family and bonding.

 TOHTR once had a door-bell I can't reach but its door would always flung open when I stood before it and had never ever shut me out. I often entered empty stomach but always leave full and burping. Hepi and Hepu had a heart of gold and always had room for people knocking at their door. It was a small house in structure but the biggest as everyone was welcome. It had no architectural marvel to boast of, neither had concrete pillars nor marble tiles to its credit. But nobody who enters empty stomach and thirsty doesn't leave in the same fashion they comes in.

It was not only a house but a voluntary police chowki. At night fall, if Hepu hears school children running amok and fooling around by the roadside he would wear his grey 'over-coat', put on his shining (polished) boot, pick up a walking stick and would chase them away. Not because he hates them but wants them to be safe from the speeding vehicles and the lurking danger. Above all, he wanted them to stay at their home and study. And if children play marble nearby the road, it was a common sight that time, he took the role of a police-man upon himself and would collect the marbles and throw them away. For this act of community service he rendered, he had earned himself the ire of many children and even parents. If anyone creates a scene outside, he never remain indoors or a mute spectator rather he always take stock of the situation and tried his best to solve the problem amicably. His timely intervention had rendered justice and prevented any further trouble.

TOHTR needs no alarm clock. It rises with day-break and its door was the first to creak open in all of Salbung all throughout the year. Before any living soul wakes up, Hepu would filled all the containers and buckets with water to the brim, not from a running tap or water-well but from Koite river! Kerosene, sugar, salt, milk-powder, soap, detergent, tooth-paste and even match-boxes… you name it, he had it in stock that would last for the entire month even if the manufacturing company stops producing them for the entire month. He would also stock bags of charcoal, the finest quality, much before the arrival of winter. During early winter morning Hepu and my brother would wake up the neighbouring houses with the sound of their axes splitting fire-woods. For him winter morning and summer morning were the same.

While in that house apart from his occasional tooth-ache, I never knew he could fall sick; too invincible for diseases to stoop him down. He always looks fresh, clean and tidy. He smells of Dettol as he used to rub on his body very much like we wear perfume today. He oiled his all-white hair daily with keokarpin hair oil.

Lunch and dinner were laid and served on the table exactly at the scheduled time all the year round. There was no room for delay and mistake under him. His humber cycle cleaned and oiled every day, sparkling and as good as new always. So does with his shoes and boots.

I knew him as someone who loved ‘story-telling’ around the warm embrace of glowing brazier at night in winter but never once did I heard him telling a fairy-tale or folk-tales. He told stories about real people and events; of village life, genealogy, ‘Japan gaal’ (World War II) and his own. I liked all the stories but one about genealogy, I extremely find it boring and monotonous. I only realized its importance and utility only lately after he is no more. He had in-depth knowledge, ‘A-Z’, as he often claimed, of genealogy. Although I don’t know much of it or care very less to know, I was extremely impressed with his style of narration. I heard him speak of genealogy over a dozen times but each time he did, he said the same thing, used the same words and most surprisingly, the same expressions.

           

In every formal gathering or fellowship where he has had something to say, he usually begins with a Bible verse Matthew 6:33 "…Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you" every time he stood up, bow his head and pray. He always prayed for each and every member of his family near and far. I had my first brush with the Bible verse “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2 from Hepu.

Apart from all that’s been said of him, he was a man of simple needs and simple taste. I can't forget what he once told me: "what a man really needs in life is a hearty-meal and a warm bed to sleep…nothing more, nothing less".

True to what’s seen on the Wall-hanging Bible verses CHRIST was the head of that house, the unseen HOST at every meal and The silent listener to every conversation.

A humble poem for Hepu

Dear Hepu,

As I take a look around Salbung today

Everything almost has all change

For better or worse only you could say

But there is nothing much to see

Yet it remains pretty much the same

For the clear open blue sky up above

Still cover us like a hen does to its young-ones

Salbung air you once breathed Salbung still breathes

The ground you once walked upon we still do

But more often now upon tyres; two’s and four’s

Salbung as tiny as a mustard seed

Took its maiden birth in your heart yon

Has now stood like a castle on mountain top

The seed you sow and nurture with honest brow

Salbung now reaps in ten and hundred fold

This year it turns fifty years old and fifty years fond

Salbung pays our humble respect you so deserve

And bow to the God you bow to and serve

As I look around Salbung today

Everything almost has all change

For better or worse only you could say

But there is nothing much to see

Yet it remains pretty much the same

As your presence is felt in every way.

(The writer took his maternal grandfather’s name Letkhoneh-Nehtinthang and this article is written straight from the heart, the bare-truth, no rhymes, no embellishment and exactly as the writer remembers. He only took a leaf out of the annals of his grandfather’s long illustrious stories. “The Old House by the Roadside”( TOHTR) is where his grandfather and grandmother once lived; they were hale and hearty in that house and the writer wants to remember them that way)