Surangi, The Child Bride

Part 26

What was supposed to be a festival of lights and good cheer almost threatened to become the cause for war between the boys and girls around the Oak household. A few days before Diwali Madhav and Waman began their pet project, the making of the killa. It is a tradition among the children of Maharashtra to build an earthen model of a fort in order to recall the glory of the iconic seventeenth century Maratha king Shivaji who had built many land and sea forts to secure his empire. 

Young boys identified a suitable spot before their home and built a base with bricks and stones, covered it with burlap and plastered it over with lumps of wet mud, patting down and smoothing out the structure. It was a challenge to make the fort look as realistic as possible by adding ramparts, towers, bastions, gun turrets and sometimes even a moat and a drawbridge if possible. To make it look even more authentic they sowed mustard seeds into the mud used to make the fort and watered it daily so that they could have miniature "trees" growing.

Moreshwar, fondly known as Moru, was almost seven years old and was allowed to assist Madhav and Waman in their venture. Surangi and Arundhati were also eager to contribute but were forbidden by Madhav who did not want the girls ruining his handwork because of their inexperience. As expected Arundhati threw a tantrum and turned both Surangi and Yami, Moru's sister against the boys. "Amhi suddha amcha vegla killa karu!" Arundhati declared in a huff that the girls would make their own fort to rival that of the boys. "By all means, be my guests!" Madhav responded.

When they began working on their killa the girls soon realised that they had no clue how to proceed. They had expected the job to be as simple as building a castle in the sand but each time they built a pile of stones and tried to cover it with mud their foundation would cave in and their amateur architectural attempt came tumbling down along with their pride, inviting snickers from the two younger boys. "Moryaa, I'll kick you in the rump if you continue to mock us!" Yami screamed at her brother, amusing the boys even more. "Your fort looks like it has taken some serious cannon fire from ours. No, wait! Maybe it suffered a cloudburst!" Waman called out.

Madhav offered to help but Arundhati was too irked to take assistance from the boys. After a few more failed attempts the girls were almost in tears at the snarky remarks from Waman and Moru, and to salvage her dignity Arundhati threatened to sabotage the boy's project. The boys were immediately up in arms over the feminine show of aggression. "You kept the best rocks for yourselves leaving us only these worthless pebbles!" Surangi growled. "Go and play with your dolls or make flower chains, that's more up your alley!" Madhav  retorted. Alerted by the din Yashoda came out to intervene just before both the parties continued accusing each other, ready to start a scuffle. 

"Quiet, all of you! Girls, if you cannot construct a fort why not try to create a village at the base of the fort? You can make your own farms and houses and merge them with the boy's work so that both sides emerge as winners." Yashoda gave the girls tips for fructifying her idea and also offered to guide them. Encouraged by her advice the three girls began making small mud huts and adding straw over the top to make roofs. They built a well and a watering hole and planted their own mustard fields. Within days both the fort and the girl's village at the base were ready for approval. 

The boys placed clay figurines of Shivaji seated on his throne on top of the killa and surrounded him with his Mawla soldiers, guarding their territory with swords and spears and guns. The girls added their own touch with men and women working on their farms or fetching water. The boys had elephants and horses in the fort while the girls brought in farm animals and chickens. Both parties finally made truce when their joint venture passed muster with the grown ups who were generous with their praise for the effort taken by the children. By that evening all rivalry was over with. Surangi joined Yashoda and Sharayu in worshipping the cow and calf in their shed, following the custom of Vasu Baras, while the boys hung colourful paper lanterns called Akash Kandil before the house.