Cigarette

 Ten year old Liesel loves the smell of cigarettes. No, she doesn't smoke. She rolls the cigarettes with her foster parent Hans Huberman. Who reads books with her when she wakes from her nightmares. Who plays accordion to her.  So the smell brings a feeling of safety in her. She is the 'book thief' in the book by Makcus Zusak.

So I tried to bring back my cigarette memory. No, sorry to disappoint you. I don't smoke. Didn't even smoke in my college days. Nor does my husband. 

But my grandpa would. When we were little children, occasionally we would make a trip to a store to buy him cigarettes. 

And what a trip it was. I know, you are all tired of our generation's stories about crossing mountains, rivers etc. for going to school. But this story is real.

The shop was a kilometer away. We had to walk through the areca fields. We walk for a distance, then cross a stream on a foot bridge, then cross another plot filled with grass, and then finally walk the rest of the way on  kachcha road.  

But in rainy season - June to October, this path would be treacherous. The fields will be slippery and there will be so many leeches who will feast on your feet. 

But we didn't worry much about those. We would reach the shop, buy the cigarette pack and buy few peppermints with the money remaining - which I think was 5 paisa. The cigarette pack was 95 paisa.  Oh, good old days!

Was this trip worth it for one or two peppermints. Of course it was. It was fun. As they say, it is the journey which is important.

My uncle - the eldest one smoked beedi. May be it was his way of rebelling against father's cigarette. 

Do the children in those villages still walk a kilometer to reach school? Of course, they have to. But the government started distributing free bicycles to school children some time in 2006 - 2007. May be they bike to schools. 

But, those who can afford send their children to private English medium schools. These schools have bus facility. 

Ah, I forget to mention. As my father was a high school teacher in a town, all these trips I talked about happened only in the summer vacation when we visited our grand parents. So that village life for a month and half each year was fun time for us. 

But there is a conflict there. I don't have my roots in those villages nor in the towns where my father worked. I spent 7 years of my schooling  in a place near Maharashtra border called Haliyal. And came to another town called Sirsi only in my 10th grade. Neither of these places became mine. 

And Bangalore. It is just a place of residence. In spite of living here for the last 21 years.

Adults would talk about me saying that I will adapt to any situation. I never did. What I did instead was antagonize people wherever I went.

Kastvam, koham, kuta ayata?

I really don't know where I come from. 

But going back to the book The book thief - this book is something we all must read. The story happens in Germany during 1939. 

I remember one incidence - April and it is Hitler's birthday. All houses are nicely displaying their flags on the window. But poor Liesel's foster parents can't find the flag. Rosa - her mama is worried. She keeps telling now they will take us. 

Luckily, they finally do find the flag and hoist it in front of the house. 

And all children march wearing brown uniforms. There is also book burning ceremony. Books by Jews, books written during previous regimes and all those which are antagonistic of Hitler are collected in the town square and are burned in a bonfire. 

From which Liesel steals her second book.