This happened last year, sometime in December, when I had gone back home for the holidays.

I had gone to Thal for some Dattatreya celebrations because some famous kirtankar was going to come and sing bhajans [devotional songs] at night, so my nana[maternal grandfather] and his nephew wanted to go, especially since they were friends of this guy's father's. Anyway, after the kirtan [a music narration extolling someone's greatness] was over at around 2 am, the guy left, and the loudspeakers were playing general purpose bhakti songs about Dattatreya, usually sung by the Mangeshkar sisters and it was pretty good, till about 3 am when some idiot decided to play Gadar at full blast.

Now, I like 'Mai nikla, gaddi leke' and all, but for god's sake, it was Dattatreya's birthday, it was 3 am, they should atleast have some taqaza-e-waqt? But these people were the folks who had made the arrangements and all, so my kaku-aaji[grandaunt, she lived next door] was like, 'zaunde re, karun de maja tyana' [forget it, let them have fun]. It just went to show that even chitpavans are tolerant people. But my civic sense was tingled, so I went around knocking on doors in the neighbourhood. So Sadu Ranade and his son, old man Khanderkar and his grandson Pappu, and some other folks from the gurav-aali went and put an end to the nuisance. it was quite helpful, taking some folks from the gurav-aali that is, as it turned out that some of them were the fathers of the boys who were playing the music.

By the time it was all over, it was 4 am, and I had lost sleep, so I decided to go to the Sai-Ganesh temple on the way to the beach, and then onto the beach itself. The stars from the beachside in an indian village are beautiful, and the sunrise is breathtaking. The reason why I went because I love the way to the beach, the path, it is flanked by bakuli flowers on both sides. My Kaku-aaji warns us that bakuli flowers attract snakes, but I have never seen a snake there. Maybe it is just the rumour that there are ghosts by the seaside that scares the old woman. My grandfather's eldest brother apparently conversed with a ghost on of his morning walks to the seashore, but I think it's another old wives' tale. I left for Mumbai that very day, so I didn't actually meet Pappu and ask him if his old man had a good night's sleep, but I am sure he did.

Oh, take me away to the country, again...