(This Episode Took Place circa 1960)

Puri is a coastal city in the Indian state of Odissa by the Bay of Bengal, about 310 miles from the City of Kolkata. Puri is very popular as a religious city as well as an attractive vacation spot. The city is also famous for the world-famous Shri Jagannath Temple and other temples. Puri boasts beaches and markets that buzz year-round, while the wetland beyond the city remains attractive.

Kolkata’s many residents are victims of polluted environments although all of their childhood and adult life they enjoyed the richness and grace of the world’s over-populated center of culture, literature, and religions practiced in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and many other countries. Puri is a favorite tourist spot for Kolkata’s residents and tourists from these countries.

My mother and my sister were advised by their doctors to spend a month in Puri for a change of weather and water. The timing was perfect as my college was closed for vacation. We packed and took off for a month.

Our temporary lodging in Puri was a duplex facility, which did not have any indoor bathrooms. The tenants in the second half of the duplex consisted of two women and a girl who was about fourteen or fifteen. For convenience of telling my story let me name the girl as Katiya.

The bathing facility was outdoors with a not-so-deep well for all tenants of the duplex. The bathing process was reasonably simple. The owner of the duplex provided several buckets with attached ropes for raising water from the well. Beachgoers and non-goers as well, spray bucketfuls of water over their head for showering and to get rid of sand collected from the beach.

Coming back to my story, one day I was taking a bath by the well using the same process described earlier. Sumitra, Nilima, and Katiya were sitting, relaxing, and enjoying on a beach mattress from some distance away. All of a sudden, Katiya, the young girl jumped from the mattress, rushed to the well, snatched the bucket from my hands, and started to raise water from the well and pour it over my head. In short, she was giving me a bath. I had no opportunity or intention of stopping her from her endeavor.

A few days still left of our vacation. My mother, sister, and I continued our vacation basically spending time to visit roadside markets and shopping places. Strangely, we noticed that the girl Katiya’s family followed us at most places we went, and tried to be very friendly with us and have conversation all along the way.

At one point Katiya asked my sister, “Didi, when are you going back to your home?” My sister got surprised at her “Didi” calling.
“Tomorrow; why do you want to know?”
“Can we go together, my mother wanted to know.
“Why does your family want to go together with us?

She got perplexed and did not know what to say.
Her mother came forward to help her and said, “She likes your brother, but she is very shy to say that.”
“Why not you give me your phone number, my brother will call you-people”.
Katiya, the girl, was not happy with that answer. Perhaps she wanted to go with us

On the day of our departure, we packed and were ready to leave the duplex. Surprisingly, Katiya was waiting just outside the duplex in which we stayed. As we started to walk Katiya started to follow us. Her mother jumped and ran to stop her. Katiya burst into tears and started crying rather loudly. “I want to go with them”.

For some reason, I felt embarrassed for her childish behavior. My sister and my mother were feeling bad about her emotional cry. I was not sure what I should feel.

My sister pulled my hand and continued walking. They were not in the mood to watch the childish drama.

After going a few feet, we gave a sympathetic look back and waved.

The girl was still crying.

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