Ghosts of war

Stories from a Forgotten Colonial Holocaust

“I am telling you the last time child, if you don’t finish your meal today, I am going to let you starve for the whole day tomorrow.”, shouted a woman in her shrill disciplinary voice. Young Parul was again running around the house to find an escape from eating pan-fried bitter guard and Khichudi (rice porridge cooked in pulses) that her Pishi (paternal aunt) has served. Parul followed her usual route from the kitchen to the sitting area and out of the central circular open veranda. She crossed over to the other side of the Veranda and dashed inside her father’s room, her favorite place to hide from the tortures of her aunt. Soon after she crawled underneath her father’s four-poster bed, her aunty enters the room and drags her from under the bed. Parul then reluctantly sat back for her meal and finished it till the last morsel disappeared from the yellow copper plate. But Pishi’s rearing principles are severe. She told Parul in an instructing manner, “Now, wash the leftovers off your …