The Four Boondi Laddoos

A National Festival like today’s Republic day brings back those childhood memories of my school. I studied in the Government Inter College, Kanpur. The three national festival days viz. the Independence Day, the Republic Day and the Gandhi Jayanthi were always celebrated with a lot of pomp and splendor by our standards of those days. We used to have some drills, some Prabhat Pheri, some good cultural programs and it ended with those standard four Boondi Laddoos.

The mornings started with a lot of excitement. Right from dawn, we used to have the small vendors running down the street, selling their product of the day – the tricolor flags, the tricolor badges, caps and what not. They wanted to catch the kids before they went to school. We used to pester our parents to give 10 paisa well in advance, on the previous night itself, so that we don’t end up finding them in the bathroom or busy in kitchen, at that crucial time when the vendor is running down our street.

My father worked for a defence establishment and hence the day was celebrated there as well – with equal solemnity. So, compared to the lazy start of the day today, it used to be a brisk morning with all of us finishing the morning chores animatedly to meet the target time for the flag hoisting.

The entire city wore festive attire. The major road junctions were decorated and popular songs of nationalistic fervor were played on loudspeakers. The evergreen songs like “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon…” and “Kar Chale Hum Fida …” gave us goosebumps, every year and every time they played. A large framed photo of Gandhiji was a familiar site at all these places. Some areas that were traditional Congress bastions also had the photos of Nehru and Indira Gandhi alongside Gandhiji’s.

Dressed up in neat school uniforms, waiving the small tricolors in our hands, we rushed to the school – to be in time for the grand flag hoisting ceremony. We used to have an ex-serviceman as our sports teacher – Mr. Chitranshi. Full of energy, with a roaring voice and a motivating tone, he used to command us to do our special drill, while he banged the huge drum to match with our steps.

The cultural show used to be a mix of entertainment and education. There used to be some good oratory, some short skits, some original poetry and of course the long lecture from the principal or one of the teachers. The senior Hindi teacher – Mr. Gaya Prasad Mishra was good in making engaging speeches. The MC of the show used to be another teacher – was it R.P Mishra /Sharma ? I think yes, his son was in my class – Ravi Kumar. There was one senior student – who had his standard original rendition – that used to start with – “Kaun Kahta Hai ki Bapu Mar Gaya ….” . And the same used to change to “Kaun Kahta Hai ki Nehru Mar Gaya..” on the Children’s Day. Guys always waited for the grand finale – a film song by one Bhola Nath Dhol. He used the desk as a Tabla or Drum and used to provide a good musical end to the program. But once, while he was playing the film music, the then principal N.J Paul – who perhaps was not in a good mood that day – stopped him in between as he would not allow a film song. That was shocking for all of us and we genuinely felt bad for Bhola Nath.

And then followed the queuing up for sweets distribution. We lined up along the long gallery and the support staff of the school – the two names that I can recall – Rajaram and Chandrashekhar used to distribute sweets to us. It used to be a pack of four Boondi Laddoos that we all enjoyed together. Some of the enterprising classmates tried various means to get into the queue once again to take a second round of Laddoos. The entry gates to the hall were generally guarded by the teachers but still some of the enthusiastic souls managed to get in. In the melee of the queue, some even tried by extending both their hands at different heights and often got two handfuls of Laddoos. Only once in those 7 years did someone try for a change of menu – we got two Laddoos and two Samosas instead of the standard four Laddoos. But that could not beat the charm of four Laddoos and the original menu was restored subsequently. Today, at this age, I feel uncomfortable eating more than one Laddoo at a time and still wonder how we ate four at a time and scampered for another set of four.

But when I see now – most of the schools declare a holiday, at least in this large IT capital of the country that I live in. There are no flag hoisting ceremonies. There are no festivities. And there is no recognition of the importance of these national holidays – there is no sense of pride. There are no vendors in the morning, running down the streets to make that last deal for their paper flags. And there are no Laddoos, of course – while I still have that lingering taste of those childhood Laddoos in my mouth.