SOCIAL STUDIES, BOOK THREE - Weaving Alice - an excerpt
Chanti's Escape - page 38 - 41
By the time I was seven I would carry the bucket to the public water tap. Clean water was not always readily available. If we were lucky we would have water on alternate days but most often the tap would be running once a week. On the days when water was available I would fill the bucket and carry it back to our home.
If I spilled even a drop of water my mother would shout, "Stupid child! Stupid child, watch what you are doing!"
My father had a softer side and he would always step in to protect me from my mother's wicked tongue lashing. His name Mahavir, I came to learn, meant great hero and throughout my childhood and even longer my father was just that to me.
My earliest memories of my home town of Nawada are vague. Nawada is located in the larger area of South Bihar in India. The residents of Nawada live on both sides of the River Khuri. The right bank was more modern and it was there that one would see government buildings, manufacturing plants, and other important places. We lived on the left bank; the older part of town and it was here that one would see pitted roads, piles of garbage, open drains and stagnant pools of water.
In Nawada an observer would see many street urchins. Child labour was customary but not all children were fortunate to have a job. I was more fortunate than most of the other children in South Bihar. I was neither a child labourer nor a street urchin. My father who worked as a potter provided well for my mother and for me, his only child. My name Chanti means peace and apart from my mother's sporadic rantings and ravings, it was with peace thaat my childhood years were filled. No one ever laid a hand on me in anger......
CHANTI'S ESCAPE is one of 12 short stories in SOCIAL STUDIES, BOOK THREE, Weaving Alice. You will find this book in both Kindle and Paperback formats on all Amazon sites. My Amazon Author's Page is found at https://amazon.com/author/audreyaustin
