[Last Bell of Montezuma] - The village dakiter (doctor)

BDCommunity Presents: Last Bell of Montezuma!! [Writing Contest- 100 Hive in Prizes][Final Week]

Grandma sat on her chair as usual. She was plump like most grandmas. She wore her spectacles alright but one of the 'legs' was tied with a string. She wouldn't listen to her children to change the frame. Money was always a sensitive topic for her.

Grandma had grown up dealing with 'anna' and 'paisa' and the way her grandchildren spoke of spending thousands on things like modern cooktops made her screw up her eyebrows. For her, the firewood stove was the best and would always be the best.

Grandma always had stories up her sleeve. If anyone spoke of visiting a new land, she would soon 'overpower' the conversation with her accounts of travel but because it was interesting in spite of being told the 300^th time, everyone listened. Everyone included her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. Her daughters too visited her sometimes and then should be all the more in a flurry to cook dishes that they liked most.

Grandma was very fond of grandpa. Grandpa never spoke much. He had nothing to say, rather. Grandma would decide for him and he would nod his head in approval. If it were matters of trading the bamboo poles or leasing the farmland, it would rest on grandma's final decision and grandpa's nod.

One day, the newlywed daughter-in-law who had been raised in the city sat down to hear grandma tales after the afternoon lunch. Someone mentioned a villager by name and grandma as usual talked about 'Hiranya' and 'Dakiter'. The others who had heard about it before kept nodding but the daughter-in-law looked confused.

Was grandma talking about the demon Hiranyakashipu? Who was a dakiter and what did he have to do with Hiranya?

The daughter-in-law started to listen intently. It would not do to interrupt grandma. She would take offense and also if she asked others later, they would think she was showing off her city airs and even talk ill about her to grandma. She did not want to look bad. Grandma continued talking and slowly, the daughter-in-law understood that grandma was talking about Hernia and Doctor.

It seemed that grandpa had had a Hernia operation a few years back. Grandma had not studied beyond primary school and so she had her own way of pronouncing words like dakiter for the doctor, eeschool for school, and so on.

Grandma was however a most likable personality and continued to regale others with her fascinating stories.

#BDCcontest

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Thanks to @azircon and @zayedsakib for inspiring me to write. This was written in fond memory of my mother-in-law.

I would like to invite @inuke to participate in the contest