Bina and Me

I lived a piece of defence life today....

Meeting and separation are a part and parcel of life..from the stories i heard from baba on his experience and life in the Indian Air force, i could well imagine that of all good and bad phases of the defence life, separation from neighbors and friends during a 'posting' was probably the most painful episode...putting a brake (or may be a break) to a relationship of 3 or 4 long years, where airmen lived together with their families in one particular station, shared everything ranging from their offices, evenings and lives, to mangoes guavas and other fruits/vegetables growing in the station; as their wives exchanged recipes and dishes; mingled with each other and imbibed each others culture....so long i had used my mind to imagine a situation as such..but today, a heartfelt emotion triggered by an incident made me experience a bit of defence life.....

My attachment with Bina was definitely not as strong as the one between 2 servicemen living in the same station...but the fact that i had a friend talking my language,having similar hobbies & interests as mine, and living just a block away in my complex was quite comforting...or rather, i say it was relieving...it is not that we met very often and chatted a lot...12 hours of my day on all the 5 weekdays is spent away from home in my workplace....occasionally, on my way back from office, I met Bina and masima (her mother-in-law) buying vegetables and groceries from the stores in front of our compound...hence commenced our casual conversation, the duration of which ranged from 5 minutes to 45 minutes depending on my hunger levels (most days i am hungry like a shark by the time I reach home)....Bina was my source of information about all upcoming events and get togethers happening at NCL Godavari

Bina had an artistic bend of mind...she was a champion in drawing and painting....anything related to arts and crafts interested her immensely...that was one more node which strengthened my attachment with her....we shared ideas on glass painting, nib painting, shared information which any of us dug out from the internet, and showed our paintings to each other as we experimented with the different forms of art...

Bina was an early bird....last year winter, it was Bina who managed to drag me out of bed on cold weekend mornings much before the sun could illuminate the streets of Hyderabad, in search of flowers and fruits growing in the desolate townships of BHEL and Dandamudi Enclave....the above mentioned projects were designed in an eco friendly fashion with a lot of flowering and fruiting trees planted along the border of the individual plots...some legal hindered the construction of bricks and mortar, but the plants underwent their natural growth cycle to blossom to flowers and fruits, probably for us to have them plucked...Bina did not frequent the sparsely populated townships on weekdays, probably due to lack of time and companion...but on weekends, we jointly marched through the mist encapsulated empty lanes in our expedition of collecting flowers and papayas....sometimes, a Gujarati friend Pooja joined us in our morning adventure trips...we forgot our age and behaved like kids as we plucked flowers, buds, or spotted some beautiful unfamiliar bird..of all the hours i spent with Bina, this was by far, the most enjoying and memorable one.....the advent of summer dried up the flowers and whithered the fruits, thus halting our weekend meetings...

Be it Ganesh Chaturthi, Janmashtami, Shivratri or any other function conducted in our compound premises, we eventually paired up ( Bina and me; and our mother in laws together)...I remember a Rangoli and cooking competition being conducted in our complex where the 2 of us emerged winners...Bina stood first and I came second..had Bina participated in the cooking competition, she would have definitely bagged another trophy...My Bengali preparation of payesh and patisapta secured me the second position....the 2 glistening crystal trophies in my living room would always remind me of Bina and that fun filled competition day ...even if we both participated and competed with each other, the competition between us was healthy and we took it sportingly....in Bina's absense, any future competition of this nature would lose its charm ...

There is one more, and a sad connection between the 2 of us....we both lost our father in laws in a span of 6 months..mine being first followed by hers... shortly after which they consolidated their plans of shifting to Bangalore...

I met Bina today evening as we bid adieu to each other...her house devoid of any furniture or art pieces created by her...dont know whether i would say this is the 'last' time i saw her....tomorrow morning, before i would wake up, they would have left Hyderabad!