smokin'

dad was born in west bengal.....panagarh......whenever......and he moved out from there when he was one and half.......so he doesnt remember anything of it anyway........then they went to jhansi......where his youger brother was born..........his elder brother studied in the same school in jhansi that i went to 35 years later hen dad got posted there himself..........sound strange.....but there it is.....anyway.....the interesting incident that happened in jhansi was with my grandma...........she was educated only five classes of primary school..........and got married to my grandad young..............i used to call grandad vaddepapa........so vaddepapa was a dynamic personality..........fond of shikar........and royal tastes.....was an intellectual.........and so vaddemummy also got liberated in her thought and mind..........and the marriage made her into a woman of substance.........and as she was strong of character..........her presence commanded its own identity........at least thats how i remember her in her later days......a little before she died............anyway.....vaddepapa had newly shifted to the MES house he was issued.......a large house........the servant quarters of which were yet unoccipied............which had their owm little gate at the back................it was sometimes left open by mistake by those who came to work at the house.....and since the servant quarters were em[pty......no one closed it thereafter...........vaddemummy was in the lawn in front of the house.......when a stray dog came into the kitchen from the little gate..........and slurped away all the milk wich was on the shelf...........vaddemummy already got the whiff that something was on......and by the time she got to the kitchen......she oly saw the dog..........going towards the back of the house......its face still wet with milk on it.......................infuriated at this unacceptable behaviour..........in she went to the house........got one of vaddepapa's guns...........loaded it with two acrtridges.........and ba bam.........the stray dog became a dead dog.......................................................what was interesting aboput this incident was the message that spread soon.........and the servant circles knew that the new lady who has just moved in that house is a smoking barrel........and stray dog came and stole her milk...........and she plugged it with a double barrel gun in seconds...........what would she have dished out to some thief if there were one...........................................................and the effect of this story was that for the three years they lived in the area.........the rate of burgularies in the region dipped to record levels.................in a place which was notorius for thugs and thieves!!