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A Moment Captured Forever
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Anya
Rath
L'anse
Creuse Middle School- North,
Macomb, MI, USA
Grade 8th |
My feet scraped the wood
floor as I ate some spicy dahi baara. Already guests
were arriving- well only family so far. My tongue begged for
more of the dish, so I walked into the other room and
sighed. My mama and Chitra dhetai were busy making
manda pithas.
It was so warm in India. I
chuckled as I thought about my friends in Michigan. I
pictured them under layers of blankets, and the heater on
high. Mita Khudi interrupted my visions with a
question, “Au tike khaibu? You want a little more?”
I nodded and took my second
helping. As I sat down in the chair, wood with a soft
cushion, I gazed at the door and watched family,
friends, and mosquitoes troupe in. Everyone was coming to
my Ma’s shraddha, Ma was my paternal grandmother. She
had passed away a year before and this was a pooja
for her soul. I sighed again. It will be a very interesting
day.
Later in the evening I sat
down in a crowded bedroom. Babbling, aunties talked in
Oriya, spilling out all gossip they knew. All of a
sudden my father strode in with his camera, and all his
brothers and sisters. The pooja was done and all the
U.S peesi nanis and dadeis wanted to preserve
this moment. At first they just sat on the bed and talked
but when they were good and ready they got as close as they
could get to still, my dad handed me his camera and turned
to join his brothers and sisters. At last the whole Rath
clan was together again! From Savi nani (the oldest
sibling) to Jula kaka (the youngest). The only one
missing was my Baba dadei, who lives in Maryland, but
the picture was still beautiful. All the sisters were on the
bed with their lovely embroidered sarees, soft cloth
with designs stitched into it enveloping their bodies,
grazing the bed. All the while giggling and nagging at each
other to sit still. The brothers posed proudly standing by
the bed, hard and crisp, with white and brown
kurtas on. Flashes erupted all over the room. I
took the cool camera, sleek and shiny, and pointed it at the
family. A bright light exploded from the camera and captured
the moment forever. Shining, the sun had begun to set.
People started going home. After all they had to get ready
for the night at the temple, where dinner would be served-
it would almost be a party.
“Anya, you should keep your
hair up like that more often. It’s good to be able to see
your eyes!” commented Seema dhetai.
I grinned and
shifted. Squirming, I was sitting pretzel style with an
orange and purple embroidered salwar kameez inside
the temple. I returned to my thoughts and stared at my
kadli patra thali, my banana leaf plate. Dry banana
leaves, crisp and a musty green, were formed into a plate. I
thought about my time in Krishna Garden. My mousi had
served my lunch on a whole damp banana leaf, a fresh green
and overwhelming, it had been picked just that day. Another
thought arrived and my emotions stirred together in the
great pot I called my mind. My happiness was mixed with
sadness. We would be leaving India in less than two weeks.
My thoughts were once again interrupted, “Do you want rice?”
asked a young man carrying a huge silver bucket, shiny and
warm, in his hand.
I nodded and he shoveled
some out and it flopped onto my plate. As I picked at the
rice, clumped and white, my thoughts returned to the
perfect picture of my paternal family.
For some people this would
not be a big deal. Having family in two different countries
can be hectic. We had not gone to India in four years. When
we did go the U.S folk would probably not be there. Even
though we were all saddened by Ma’s death, I think that she
tried to cheer us up a tad bit by bringing almost the whole
family together. That day meant a lot to me, because I may
never see that moment again.
Dehtai: Father’s older brother’s wife
Khudi: Father’s younger brother’s wife
Kaka/ Kakeyi: Father’s younger brother
Dadei: Father’s older brother
Peesi/ nani: Father’s sister
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