Coconut

The Coconut
Gurdip Singh

The family was happy.
They were happy that their house was complete. The builder, the contractor and everybody had furnished it according to the tastes and likings of the family. The colour of the walls, the toilets, the kitchen everything in the house was perfectly shaped and designed. It was their exclusive house. They has been waiting for this to happen, for the last two years.
“Don’t you think, it is taking longer than usual?” Children asked their father.“Yes, I know, but you see, they say, Rome was not built in a day. It took years to have it built.”
Father was right. The house had to be equipped and designed to meet their primary needs. A house is not only a living place, that is a place to live rather it is living place like all other living things, it breathes and throbs with you. It is full of live. A lifeless place is called a house but if it is alive to your feelings, desires and dreams, it becomes your home, a place where one can repose one’s desires, dreams and even tears. It not only protects you, it serves as a hiding place where you can hide your best things, the things which you don’t want others to see. So we waited and bore to put up with the landlord whose treatment we knew was not fair. It was the most undignified way of living.
Now the very house was complete and soon it was going to be our home, a permanent dwelling place of the family. Father has done best to draw money from various sources and resources to make it our dream house. Earlier when he used to show us in lines and projections, we sometimes made fun of him. “Come on Papa, you are giving it more than it deserves. After all every house is a house and we are constructing a Taj Mahal.”
“A Taj Mahal is a house of dead, it is a tomb and nobody ever likes to make it his home. So don’t compare it with anything like that.” He would correct us.
After a long endless chain of troubles and hardships, now we were going to have our own house and in a couple of days, we were to occupy it to transform it from house to home. Having both the essential documents the completion certificate and occupation certificate, he announced, “We are moving in our new house this Saturday.”
“How can you move on your own.” Rajinder’s mother said.
Rajinder is our family friend and his mother had joined us for a couple of weeks as she had stayed behind after the marriage of Rajinder’s cousin. We took her as our grandmother.
“First, a pooja is held, and after pooja our gods will occupy the house. We shall follow them.” She counseled.
“But Beji, what is the need of all that. We have already performed such pooja several times before. First we did it when the foundation was laid then second time when ceiling was done. Even on the last Diwali, we held a mini pooja in the half done house. I think enough is enough, now we can’t wait.” Father seemed to be adamant. In fact he wanted to be quick through all the arrangements before the month expires.
“It wouldn’t take more than one day. Just one day pooja is sufficient. It is just crack of coconut. And then you have it.”
“O. K. Not more than that. Just with a crack of coconut, we shall move in.” Father smiled.
“Yes, you ask your Pandit ji to find an auspicious point of time (mahoorat) and then with a bang of coconut, you shall have it.”
“Papa, we going to crack the house like the hackers do in computers.” Sonia was taking a pinch of fun from all the wordy game.
“Yes, papa, what a mahoorat shot it will be, papa give a bang to the coconut and it cracks and we all go inside.”
“Start…… sound…. Camera rolling…. Action…. BANG..” Minu was too making most of the moment.
All said all done. The coconut and ‘pooja thali’ was ready. The auspicious occasion came to be 10.30 in morning. We all assembled. Pandit ji came in his customary white on his bike. The front of the house, the main door of the house was decorated with some colourful patterns. The floor of the house was boasting of its richness as Mother had very painfully and carefully selected patterned vitrified tiles which she had specially ordered from Jaipur.
“Mom, your selection is great. It looks gorgeous. Isn’t it?” Sonia made her mother feel proud.
“Oh. Yes, I remember it gave me several sleepless nights before finally falling for it.” She wanted to tell everybody. “Now, don’t you ever dare to make it look dirty.” She gave a commanding order to us all.
“Where is coconut?” Pandit ji asked.
“Here it is.” The next moment it shifted hands and the coconut reached Panditji.
He took it in his hand, closed his eyes and chanted some sacred matras and then gave it to mother to break it. Mother gave it to Beji to do the solemn ceremony.
Beji, tried in vain and banged it against the tiles carefully, but the coconut seemed hard to crack. Both the ladies present on the scene tried to break it without success. Father took it in hand and gave it a bit hard blow on the ground.
Everybody tried but failed. At last it was given to Pandit ji, he was took it in his hand and just the mobile in pocket range. He listened to the phone call. He was wanted elsewhere. He gave a hard blow, twice it slipped his hands. He carefully examined the structure of the coconut and then quite strategically he banged it against the floor. The coconut was still hard to crack. He gave another thrust this time he did it more carelessly. Lo the coconut cracked with a bang and so did the beautifully patterned tile on the entrance. It gave a big crack.
Everybody was aghast. With a thud the coconut had broken the entire tile.
Ohh,.. Congratulation. Now you can have it. Best of luck.
I saw tears rolling down Mother’s face. Her dream house…… all cracked.