Childhood memories are by far the deepest etched in our mind’s eye. Ambika derived a lot of joy to relive a few of them from time to time. Several such anecdotes lingered in her treasured memoirs, of which a few could be labelled as amusing although in essence they revolved around the humdrum of daily life.
As a child Ambika had the privilege of growing up near the precincts of the Rashtrapati Bhawan in Lutyen’s Delhi, owing to the fact that her grandpa was a Member of Parliament at that time. In her formative years, her father often dropped her to school, whenever the school bus wouldn’t ply, or she would be late for some reason or the other. Her dad’s Bajaj scooter, which was a permanent fixture outside their Bungalow, often came to the rescue at such times, for in those days even affluent families didn’t care much about owning a car.
To say the least, the scooter was her dad’s prized possession. Come rain or shine, and even on cold wintry days, he would roll up his kurta, put on a shawl, and venture for a long ride, with a song on his lips, and Ambika as a pillion rider, tightly holding on to the shawl, lest it slip away in the wind! However the scooter was often taken out for a ride with awfully poor maintenance. In that sense it was valued only as a namesake. She could still visualise her dad, singing his lungs out, steering through the wind with his favourite shawl, when all of a sudden his dear vehicle slowed down, and with a few hiccups, stopped entirely in the middle of nowhere! This was nearly a routine adventure and yet her dear dad hardly ever bothered to keep a regular check on his coveted scooter…
Every once in a while on the way to school, their dear vehicle broke down, even more so when they were crossing the Ridge Road which was covered with thickets of kikar bushes on both sides without any human habitation for at least a few kilometres. One such morning, when Ambika probably studied in Kindergarten, the scooter stopped for the umpteenth time and refused to budge despite all her dad’s frantic efforts to resolve the situation. Her face grew pale with anxiety as she wondered how her teacher would yell at her, and what reason she would give as an explanation for coming late. After many kicks and attempts, the scooter finally started, and all the way up to school, she kept reciting the mantra “Ma’am my father’s scooter had got damaged, so I am late.” When she pictures herself now she fails to understand whether to laugh or cry about the pitiable situation they landed in!
Another incident flashed in Ambika’s mind as she let out a little giggle, thinking of it in her moment of solitude. She vividly recalled the rainy day, when , as on several other occasions she missed her school bus…but only by a wink. Her heart paced as she saw the bus turning from the corner of her stop, for that very day she had an important assignment submission in the first period! Within a minute or two she saw her dad arrive in his scooty, this time with mom in tow! With the three of them seated snugly, her dad drove through the slush and mud at hurricane speed, just in time to catch up with the bus which was about to pick up the children at the scheduled stop. But lo and behold! By the time Ambika’s dad could push the brakes, the scooter glided on the muddy road, skidding and taking a U-turn, right in front of the horrified bus driver and the kids trying to board the bus. All were taken aback for a while, until Ambika’s mom, who had fallen down in the mud, managed to get up in peals of laughter. Dad was still seated firmly on his mascot, while Ambika and her mom still couldn’t control giggling. Finally, with a sheepish smile Ambika collected herself and her belongings to get on the bus, much to the driver and other teachers’ relief.
Ambika shook herself out of the reverie, and smiled. She switched on the television to make time for her favourite show. Much to her surprise, the next advertisement rang in her ears familiarly with “Hamara Bajaj…Hamara Bajaj”! “What a coincidence!” she thought to herself and chuckled.