“Here, give this one to your brother.” Cosmo’s mother ushered him out of the bamboo hut with two delicately wrapped bundles. Cosmo stood quietly for several seconds, staring at the packages, one in each hand.
His mother’s version of hawai mangan wasn’t a perfect replica of the treat his friends were already buying at the fair. Instead of newspaper, the snacks were packaged in sheets of used notebook paper and bound with fine strands of bamboo. Still, they were wonderful.
Cosmo held a package up to his nose. The garlic, ghost chili and beans fried in oil made his eyes and mouth water. His mother had done an amazing job. These homemade hawai mangan would outdo any from the vendors.
After tucking the precious cargo into his hand-me-down jacket, Cosmo ran to catch up with his older brother, Ramrei. The nearest to him in age, Ramrei was most often Cosmo’s cohort in crime. Today, the two of them were on their way to the village fair held every year on Christmas Eve.
His sisters, Aton, Vasty and Atip, together with his oldest brother, Aring, had been dismissed early to attend. Cosmo and Ramrei had been asked to stay back and finish chores.
The extra work had been a small ransom in exchange for not attending the fair empty handed. Ramrei had more than grumbled until Cosmo had volunteered to finish all of the female chores, leaving his older brother with nothing but chopping wood.
To Cosmo work was work, whether it was cleaning, carrying water or tilling the earth. Why so much fuss? He actually enjoyed the opportunity to lighten his mother’s burden.
The thought of his mother constantly slaving to keep the family fed panged him with guilt—some of which he deserved. While carrying water had saved his mother from a portion of her backbreaking labor, his whining had resulted in her spending much of the morning preparing hawai mangan.
Cosmo’s step hitched as his flip-flop came undone. Stooping, he threaded the plastic toe divider back through the rubber sole. The fit was getting loose. He’d have to be more conscious of gripping the bottom with his toes. The thought depressed him enough to need another whiff of the hawai mangan. Sneaking a bundle from his jacket, he held it beneath his nose. Heavenly.
Tucking the prize safely away, Cosmo doubled his pace. On this most important day of the year, many of the village children would indulge in more than fried bean treats. Hawai mangan was the required minimum. Without it, the fair could hardly be considered complete.
For everyone else, the spicy snacks would be purchased from vendors for the cost of a single rupee. Unfortunately, that was a rupee more than Cosmo’s parents could afford. No one will ever know the difference. Cosmo reassured himself as he hurried toward the football field in the center of town.
Families increasing clogged the main road. Children emerged from their homes. Some were already returning, perhaps to escort younger siblings.
The popular music had been blaring from the center of the village loud enough for Cosmo to hear traces of it even inside his home. Now he recognized an American pop song by the Bee Gees, one of the musical groups his brother had exposed him to.
Cosmo hoped he hadn’t missed his favorite game of kabaddi. Usually the early hours of the fair were spent alternating between tug of war and pole climbing—neither of which Cosmo excelled at. Kabaddi was different.
While the bigger kids were stronger than Cosmo, he could attack with quick bursts of power and agility. His ability to escape back to his team’s side of the field without being caught made him an ideal raider. He was never the first chosen for a match. More importantly, he was never the last.
With his stomach rumbling and his flip-flop clenched between his toes, Cosmo finally caught up to his brother. The music had switched to one of his favorite Indian hits, Sholay Sholay. The song’s beat captured him. Not knowing more than five words in Hindi, he hadn’t the slightest idea what the song was about.
“About time,” Ramrei said. “Do you have them?”
Cosmo grinned while catching his breath.
“This better work.” Ramrei didn’t seem as enthusiastic about their mother’s plan.
“Wait until you see them.”
Surrounded by dozens of other children from their own clan, the boys finished their stroll to the center of the village without another word. They altered their route slightly to ensure they’d remain among their own. Just incase. Most likely none of the tougher kids from other clans would start trouble on the day of the fair. But in the village, cautious behavior became engrained behavior.
As the boys reached the fringes of the fair, Ramrei took Cosmo by the sleeve and pulled him behind the community center. “Okay, give me mine.”
Still grinning, Cosmo carefully removed one of the packages and held it out to his brother.
Shaking his head, Ramrei took it.
“What?”
“Notebook paper?”
“So?”
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
“What is it?” Cosmo demanded.
Ramrei brushed him off. “I’ll meet you for the kabaddi match, okay? Go check on our sisters.”
Cosmo nodded, but his grin had dissolved. As he watched his brother stride away, he wondered about the fried bean snacks their mother had spent all morning making for them. The wrapping couldn’t make that much difference. He shrugged. Ramrei was only being morose. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Cosmo ran to the crowded fair entrance and waited to be admitted. He stood on tiptoes. Now all he had to do was locate his friends and show them he had been able to purchase snacks like everyone else. He’d check on his sisters after that. Besides, his father had probably found them already.
As he passed through the entrance, he grew dizzy on the smells of hawai mangan and other fried treats, both sweet and spicy. Cardamom, curry, ginger, garlic—the smells wafted over the crowd. Cosmo pushed further into the heart of the fair.
Passing several vendors, his mouth began to water. His stomach gnawed at itself with hunger. He wondered if he could hold out until he found his friends. With the wrapped snacks clutched in his hand, he thought he could taste them already.
Finally, Cosmo found a clump of his classmates. He sidled up next to Samuel, a pudgy child who shared Cosmo’s burden of intelligence but lacked Cosmo’s ambition. With a flourish, Cosmo presented his bundle of fried treats. Not wanting his friends to focus on the wrapping, he quickly tore into it. “I’ve got the best hawai mangan in the whole fair.”
As Cosmo watched his friends’ dubious faces in response to his boast, he understood the disappointment his brother had expressed earlier. Despite his friends’ doubt, Cosmo continued to display the snacks proudly in the palm of his hand.
“How come it doesn’t look the same as everyone else’s?”
“Where did you get it?”
“What is that? Used notebook paper?” Samuel tried to poke it with a finger.
“Oh, that.” Quick to improvise, Cosmo laughed. “This is premium. Very special. I bought it from a vendor who made only a small batch. This was the last one!”
Unconvinced, the children scrutinized the wrapping and the snack from different angles. “What makes it so special?”
Samuel shook his head and attempted to assert himself as the leader of the pack, despite a status barely higher than Cosmo’s. “It doesn’t look that different.”
Cosmo winked. “Here, just a little taste for each of you. Then you’ll understand.” He offered the other children tiny pieces. As they sampled his mother’s hawai mangan, his plan bloomed into full fruition.
“I see!”
“It’s wonderful.” Samuel exclaimed. Forgetting his earlier resistance, he reached for more.
Cosmo smacked Samuel’s hand. On the outside he remained smug, even victorious. On the inside, his heart sank into his stomach. Everyone in the village could afford to buy their snacks on the most important day of the year. Everyone except him and his brother, who couldn’t scrounge up two rupees between them.
It angered him that his mother had been forced to work so hard to maintain the lie. It shamed him that he had clung to her so tightly, begging her not to send him to the festival empty-handed. It shamed him further that maintaining the deception remained so important.
Cosmo determined to do something about it, but what? As bitter as they were spicy, Cosmo ate his bean snack wearing a phony grin. His stomach rumbled as he finished. The heat baked into most of his mother’s cooking helped mask the hunger. But he longed for more than chilies. This moment merely added to the long list of moments that fueled his ambition to rise above village life. He and all Nagas deserved more.
Eventually he stared down at his empty hands. An opportunity would arise. He would know it when he saw it—the chance to never worry about empty hands or empty pockets, or an empty stomach again.
Until then, he would keep grinning.