Parah Hoshiyaar!

We lived in a colony - this was while I was growing up, back home in India. Colonies are a cluster of houses, provided by an employer or the Government as a housing perk to all or most of it's employees with all the amenities.

My father moved from place to place building bridges and dams in towns and cities all over this particular state in India. It was from one of those postings that I have this vivid memory about :-)

The colony was close to a cement factory - with enough barren, plain land between itself and the factory. Health hazard they said! Health hazards didn't make much sense to our energy and age at that time. We simply played on the streets every evening with all abandon - running chasing cycle tires, jumping from tree to tree and doing everything else that I simply cannot visualize the children of today doing! Lack of opportunity or the fact that parents are more afraid than the kids is an entirely a discussion in itself.

We never went home till we were tired to even move a limb and our mothers threatened with everything imaginable :-)

Some innocents times those were...

And as the night fell and somewhere around mid-night would be the familiar shout "Parah Hoshiyaar", which was meant to alert any unwelcome intruders and an announcement in itself that there was someone that was alert, watching over! This repeated night after night - a job relentlessly performed!

The person who did this was called as the "Gurkha" !! The name itself again has it's own history and wasn't really a proper noun indicative of a person's name.

The name and the attire of this person were almost predictive! He wore 'Khakhi' clothes, wore a scarf around his neck and held a sturdy stick about 2 feet long in his hand. He also usually smoked. Hand rolled tobacco that was lit and chewed as he paced the colony through the night! Whether it was to keep him awake from shut-eye, kept him warm, or it was simply something that was done because it went with the whole image was any one's guess :-)

Along with the shout "Parah Hoshiyaar' came also the beat of the stick in front of every one's house - tak, tak, tak...three beats each!

It marked a time in the length of the night and also woke most of the residents up :-) The snoring would stop for a brief period, children would stop crying, students studying late into the night would feel re-assured. Maybe that's how the colony remained safe. What with everyone taking turns waking up to the shouting and the beats of the stick!

Even to this day, when I'm awake late into the night my sub-conscious expects to hear "Parah Hoshiyaar" and the beat of the stick.

Seems like another lifetime...