Barsati Days

The other day, an young colleague of mine was telling me of her 'barsati' days in Delhi. I told her how I used to manage ..... in a 'barsati' .......30 years back.

My 'barsati' was a classy one by standards set in those days. It had a 3ft x 5ft kitchenette attached to my rather large 12ftx12ft room. Nevermind the fact that I did not and could not cook. The whole set up had a large terrace and a toilet (not attached) right across the terrace. One had to run back to the room in the freezing winter chill after a bath. The bath had no hot water. The provision was never there, and the contract (if one existed) did not have a clause for hot water. I always bathed in cold water and in the algid Delhi winters I thanked by parents who did not encourage such 'luxuries' in my childhood. However, there was always enough cold water, and in summer I could bathe as many times as I liked..... which was a luxury, given the water shortage Delhi had at that time. The terrace door did not latch properly and would be open all day or all night. Thankfully, the bedroom door latched and I kept it locked. Tejpal, the landlords son often came to the terrace with a mongrel dog, and every time I had to shoo him away. Tejpal and Bobby (the dog) must have had a field day when I was away. At times the terrace door went bang every time the wind blew hard, and bits and pieces of string was needed to keep it shut.

In those days we had no cell phones, no Maggi noodles, no cheese cubes, no packet milk, no microwave. We had a lot grit, though. And ingenuity.

Since there were no cell phones, phone calls to and from home was restricted. There were no PCO booths either. I had to go to the local Post Office every Sunday morning at 8.30 to make the weekly phone call. It was sheer punishment on winter mornings to have to hike 3km to the post office. But Ma's voice at the other end took away all the cares and weariness of the week. I could talk to my dog, my Dad, my sister and that 20Rs trunk call kept me alive through the coming week. I never failed the weekly call home. Actually this weekly phone call system was something we all followed. We were a class of 45 with 38 non-Delhi students. Only 4 girls. (2 from Bengal, 1 from Pune, 1 from Orissa). We all made these weekly phone calls ..... different timings, different days of the week ...... but we all saved and clung on to the phone call money. It was a religion of sorts.

Cooking was a disaster. Total disaster. The landlady provided a dinner of a kind (roti/dal/dahi), but never ever had I existed with no breakfast. And no milk. A tin (a pink and white tin of Amulspray) of milk powder was sent from home. Hardly the real stuff. After much cajoling the landlady agreed to boil one seer of milk for me every morning. As I said, there was no packet milk. Milk was delivered by the milk-man. Good, rich, creamy milk, which the landlady would boil and I would go down to collect. I had to buy a 'patila' for the milk. However, I could not drink the entire one seer in the morning before classes. There was no refrigerator. In the heat of a Delhi summer, milk cannot stay fresh. I had a flask. The storage system in-a-flask did not work. I also had a water bottle. This unique article I do not see any more. It was a aluminium tubular flask coated with a brown blanket-like material. A cockscrew cap and a wide webbing belt strap. This water bottle was common enough in those days (I think it was an American GI standard issue), and my aunt had given it to me to keep water cool. I could not drink 'sada paani', the mem-sahib that I was. Anyway, the remaining milk was put in this blanket covered bottle, the stopper screwed tight, tied with string and lowered in the 'paani tanki' to keep the milk cool and fresh. And delightfully cool it was when I came home after classes to drink that 'paani tanki' milk. All my friends made fun of me, and even the young colleague smirked when I told her about it. Notwithstanding all such jibes I carried on with the milk-cooling system, and thankfully Auntieji downstairs was never any the wiser. My kitchenette was bare. My aunt in Delhi had provided me with two Spode dinner plates and a Royal Albert breakfast cup. The breakfast cup (a twin of the one Ma used every morning at home) I used and I still have it. The Spodes I did not dare use. I eventually got Auntie-ji from downstairs to give me a very colourful Melamine plate.

There was no microwave oven, no gas connection either. I got hold of a classmate (from Madurai), and the Tam-Brahm brain and the Bong brain got together to buy two red and yellow Janta stoves. To be run on kerosene. We even smuggled some kerosene out of the canteen, and spent an entire evening in his barsati (his landlord was away) trying to solve the intricate process of igniting a janta stove.

At one point of time Chaitanya screamed " Arre, ye janta stove hai, ya. The plebians use it throughout the country. Do you mean to say we educated elite cant get to light a janta stove?"

Well. We could'nt.

Eventually we got hold of Karan from the College (Karan was a Dosco and had done his Dukes) to teach us how to light a Janta stove. We learnt, and from then on hot water could be made on the Janta stove in my kitcheette. And toast. And boiled egg. Nothing more. I survived on Horlicks. And Viva was the variant. Toast and jam was always there. No Maggi. No noodles. No pre-made soup. There was Essex Farm's tinned sausages though.......sometimes. And canned baked beans....... once again, sometimes.

Auntie-ji allowed no friends upstairs. Not even with her approval. In fact two things she did not understand at all was

a) why should I have friends to begin with? "padai ke liye aye, naa?"

b) why were most of my friends boys? and "caste bhi alag ........"

The fact that there were only 4 girls in my class was never considered. However, with time she mellowed a bit, and came to allow us to sit on the steps of her veranda. All of sat there on summer evenings, chatted, sang songs, Auntie-ji sometimes joined in. She sometimes served tea or may be chilled water. We all washed up . We all loved it. In fact my house (not the barsati, but downstairs) was the favourite haunt of the entire class. Auntie-ji put up with us till 7pm and then shooed us way. She did not always let us in. We knew our limits. We always sat on the steps, never entered her living room, and went around to the kitchen door to wash our glasses. Or even to say 'bye when we left. Auntie-ji never did get to go to college. Neither did her son. She kept a very strict eye on the company I kept as also my studies. Without fail everynight she would quiz me on the lectures I had attended that day, and if I had done my 'home task'. She meant Library work. And she meant well. For the fear of lying to her I tried to squeeze in Library reading from 7 to 9pm .... before I went to collect my dinner.

I survived on little those days. Coming home was for Summers was common to all. I got Rs300 as pocket money. That was a princely sum. Many of my classmates got half of that. From the 300 a train ticket had to be purchased. My train ticket to Howrah on the Deluxe cost Rs 85. The Deluxe was a delux train. Nearly everybody took the Janta Mails which went in all directions from New Delhi Station. But that 85 rupees had to be saved. Dad did not give extra money for coming home. He paid for coming to Delhi end of the holidays. Holiday train ticket and term end Exams always coincided. I needed money to Xerox notes, money for extra food during late night studying ....... all these extras I could not ask from home. Kailash ran a side business. He was an electrician. He lent us money for the train ticket nearly every time. I would repay him when I came back after the holidays.

When I heard about my colleagues 'barsati' , my own 'barsati' of 30 years vintage flashed by. It made me nostalgic for many hours.