Remembrance Days Poem by Bashyam Narayanan

Remembrance days

Remembrance days in our tradition
Are ritually loaded
The house would start preparing for the day
From the previous day itself

The eldest male offspring of the departed soul
Would perform the rituals accompanied by his brothers

Remembrance days are observed
On the same day of lunar phase
In that particular Tamil month
On which the person died

Since most of teachers in our school
Belonged to our traditional ways
Even school teachers knew which teacher
Would be observing whose remembrance days
And on which day in that month

Cleaning would start the previous evening
In our tradition we used to feed a special food
At least to two persons following our tradition
One representing our departed forefathers and their wives
And the other representing our demigods

These orthodox persons were identified and informed by our
Home ritual priest and master

We boys would be given two sets of
An gingelly-oil filled small vessel
And a paper pack containing soap-nut powder

This oil-soap-nut powder kit were to be given to the person
Who would have the ‘feast' in our house next day

We often faced problem identifying the right person

We had the luxury of availing holiday on the remembrance days
As teachers knew that we had a function that day
And as my dad was also a teacher in that school

So no need for us to prepare for the classes next day

We used to roam a lot before getting the packs delivered
Our street ladies also knew our mission
And once they saw boys with hand-held vessel-paper pack combination
They would direct to the exact location where it had to be handed over

We would come home late offering all excuses for the delay
The previous night food would be simple
And we all would be forced to go to sleep early
As the ladies at home were to get up early next day

Rituals would start very late
It would almost turn noon when it would start
The children at home would be served a breakfast
Away from the site of rituals
Mostly it would be buttermilk soaked rice
Which was the previous day's left over

Children were not allowed to witness the rituals
We would spend the time in the upstairs
Making fun among ourselves
Someone would sing
Someone would tell a story
Someone would organize a drama
And the one person who unfailingly kept entertaining us
During remembrance days was our eldest cousin sister

She would dance
As she was getting trained in classical dance
But the issue was that
She kept performing the same number
For at least three years

We used to get the smell of smoke
From the ghee-supported ritual fire
We would be waiting for ritual performer
To come up to the terrace to offer
A ball of cooked rice for the crow
And we knew that it was the concluding part of the ceremony

We were not supposed to get down on our own
Unless and otherwise we were instructed so
A female member would appear and tell us
That we could go down for eating

We would all prostrate before elders
Who would sprinkle rice grains over our heads
Marking the shower of blessings from the remembered soul

No doubt, the food items were used to be special
And worth the waiting