Thursday, February 21, 2008

A missed happy memory

Appu Ghar was closing down forever. The News channels across the board were flashing headlines like – Bye bye Appu!, The final ride, Children bid farewell to Appu.

Appu Ghar was as old as Pallavi was. She felt she had a connection with Appu Ghar that she had never known before. Apart from their common birthdays there was nothing common to both she thought. She had no special memories of Appu Ghar.

She just remembered the last time, some 14 years ago, she had been to Appu Ghar with her father, aunt (father’s sister), cousin and grandfather. She remembers she had felt lonely at the happiest place for kids of Delhi without her mother accompanying her. Though a child herself, being the eldest of the children of the family she had by then learnt the tact of sensing when her elders used the children to fight their battles and justify their complexes. The trip to Appu Ghar that she had anticipated as a fun filled day with her father and cousin turned out to be a competition. She was forced to go on high rides that made her nervous and nauseous. The scared look on her face would pop-up despite her trying her level best to mask it with nervous laughter. That scared look did not garner sympathy for her in her elders’ hearts. Her father read it as a deed of cruel defiance on part of his daughter to belittle him in front of his father and sister. Her younger cousin brother sought the opportunity to bask in the exhilaration that his gender granted him fearlessness as a birthright. The grandfather and aunt had never been close to actually care about or even notice what little Pallavi felt.

Since that last visit, Pallavi had always avoided going to Appu Ghar. “The rides are not my thing”, she told her friends. “Its summers for Christ Sake!”; “It’s too cold to enjoy ice-creams in this season”; “Just the idea of rain dance is grotesque”. These were some of the other excuses that helped her in refusing to go to Appu Ghar, the place that everyone her age was remembering on the various news channels. 24 years after its opening, Appu Ghar was closing to make way for the Supreme Court parking and the Metro. Though Appu Ghar did not spell any happy memories Pallavi felt a stab of pain every time she chanced to see a TV news story on the sad departure of Appu.

It was one of the places where she had wanted to go to redeem her self and create a happy memory. She had badly wanted to be a part of the history of happy times that many happy children had had visiting Appu Ghar with family, hoards of cousins and crowd of friends. She was angry with the Supreme Court for snatching away the opportunity from her. But like many others who felt connected to Appu Ghar, Pallavi bid farewell to the happy orange elephant.


P.S: My first attempt at fiction. Please feel free to be critical :-)

6 comments:

Bikram said...

I've been to Delhi just once, when I was a little kid. [unless u count my recent flight stop-over there]. And the only thing that I remember of that visit - is the Appu Ghar; The 'Scary Cave' [or whatever it is called]. Heart breaking to hear that my only childhood memory of Delhi is going to be shut down. :(

Indrajit said...

i have never been thre, but yes a sadness gripped me even... If som1 so heartless like me (:P:P), is feleing bad , think abt all those people full of hearts and emotions and love and feels... OMG !!! wht wd they feel i wonder.... sigh...... sigh.......... one more sigh......... Ah Such is life re... !!!! ....

Well , jokes aprt , i knew it was a haven for kids and any delhiite worth her/his salt wd really fel bad abt it...
Good post ... :) keep writng

vyaas said...

Good post .. :)
reminds me the times wen i bunked ofc to be there with one of my frens , to breakfree as kids . Sad it's no more .

As far as write up is concerned
the things you can improve are
1) write more and take reader to a depth when it si fiction, yours comes as end when i was about to take plunge .

2) Be focussed what you want to write if its a small piece.As a reader i was expecting a nostalgia of appu ghar to be created not distracted by any other issues . There was no place for that small gender thing .


good effort at fiction ..
im not gud myself at fiction .. but told you wat i felt was lacking ..

keep writing ..
vyas

Design Kreeda said...

hii...its true...im gonna miss Aappu ghar too...have so man memories attached to it..u know the details ofcourse!!

Ankit Mahendru said...

hey this is ankit...a delhite..an engg student.. and an occasional blogger..good attempt but u could have expressed her sadness on closure of appu ghar in a better and an elaborated way...but it ends up as a good read anyways...do visit my blog too...
tk care
ankit...

Shilpi said...

itz awesome....appu ghar wz surely a b'ful memory..bt ur diz wrk of fiction z jz tooo gud...

-Regards