Mansapur

Mansapur is my nani's place (hometown of grandparents from maternal side) in Bihar. It is situated near the borders of Nepal and is close to Sehersa town. A couple of weeks back I packed my bags for Mansapur. The last time I had gone there was thirteen years back. I was in my seventh standard then and now I am out of college. A decade and more is a good amount of time for things and landscapes to change and I have a very vivid memory of my spent summer vacations here. It's like a map that has been preserved well in the shelves of my memory and as soon as I reached there, I unfolded that map and started checking the mango tree under which we sat protecting the mangoes from the thieves, the well in front of the house, the canal in which I used to play with my cousin and brother, the shelter for cows, the guava tree, the room with sitar, tabla and harmonium and many more fragments of this map. But the one thing I was really eager to see was my dad's Yezdi. I found it parked in the backyard and covered under plastic sheet. I uncovered it and stayed there looking at that old silver coloured bike. It still had the sidebox attached to it and the number plates still said 'Kumar'. 

Soaked with nostalgia I decided to draw the bike. Later I moved onto meeting the relatives and gorging down the simple food with mangoes as dessert. The many generations of the family are very tightly knit to each other and one can't escape making a visit to them. Even after thirteen years there were a few faces that didn't require an introduction. One of them was Dukha Mama and his wife.

Front facing side of the house

Backyard

There were many whom I would have loved to draw but once you have entered one house you can't leave without eating. Hence, a lot of food was consumed that resulted in hours of long sleep. The slow breeze and humid air helped very well in making the sleep thick.

The few days just passed away in a glimpse of re-brushing the fossils of past but it felt good to reaffirm how beautiful those summer days used to be.