Down the memory lane- 2

Our neighbours in Shillong were like an extended family and most often special dishes and delicacies were exchanged between us. There was this sense of peculiar bonding, which is so much rare, now days. We children knew exactly where to get what varieties of fruits and accordingly we spread our net everywhere to get hold of different varieties of fruits. Our immediate neighbour had one very sour fruit tree in their house and somebody in their house will always sit on the veranda to shoo us away. Still we tried our luck from time to time, and sometimes with success. When dusk will set in, father would come from the office, carrying a packet of hot jalebis from the Delhi Mishtan Bhandar and we will devour it like famished children. On cold chilling evenings, all of us will sit in murha (Bamboo seat) around the chulha and father will roast alu or peanut on the chulha. All of us children will wait eagerly for the roasted aloos to be served by father, sprinkled with salt. The delicious taste used to linger in our mouth. Occasionally, father will roast papad on the chulha and each papad was divided in half to be distributed among us. Father's ghost story was very much popular among the neighbourhood children and they would pester him to tell ghost stories, which they always listened with avid interest and bated, breathe.