Describe the usual kind of evening spent in your home from 5 o’clock to bedtime. (You can bring out the activities work and recreation of various members of your household)
I live in a joint family; a small unit, but joint. My father has three brothers and my grandfather is no more. But my granduncle, a bachelor, has stepped in to run the family. My grandmother is a strict lover of discipline, although very fond of her grandchildren.
At Sunset and my cousins have to be indoors. It is the ruling of the guardians that in the evening the students have to sit over their lessons. So I cannot but follow. I love sports and games and even before it is 9 p.m. my eyes droop. I doze and am smart (= feel the pain) under the flogging (= caning) of my tutor. This is almost ann daily feature with me until bedtime My elder brother, a topper in his class, always reads with gusto (= energy). His studious nature sets my laziness at odds, Naturally, the punishment at times becomes more exacting (= demanding more seriousness). Thus this phase of the day is, for me, the most unhappy and unwelcome part. would abolish it in totality from the twenty-four hours of a day, if could. Sunday, of course, is the happiest, for the Holy God forbids all work on that day. There are even more pitiable aspects of it.
My granduncle, grandmother, and two old women of the neighbour sit over cards in the evening. I envy their lot in that they have no worries about lessons and no compulsions. My father would come from his office and turn on the TV. Sometimes the catchy (= attractive) musics and songs, at others portions of dialogues of some films that I know would challenge my attention. My mother and aunts, too, seem to me the chosen ones of God. They serve the elders tea, cook and chat (= talk) merrily. I find that their chief recreation is a kind of gossip about some neighbour whose son has either failed or done better than their son.
My mother generally remains busy in the kitchen. She has to help the cook with materials. At times she has to prepare some special dish for my widow grandmother. It is the duty of my aunt to serve betels to the ladies at the cards. My grandmother has a big betel-hold.
We are generally let off at 9 p.m. from studies. I rush to our bedroom where my mother is either engaged in her letters or with some book or other. After a short while, the cook calls us to supper and three or four cousins sit together. My aunt daily sits before her small son who is not able to handle the fish for its fine bone. We enjoy our supper and often rehearse the happenings of our study hour at school or while at play.
There is little energy left after all this. Our mothers are duty-bound to make their beds ready with curtains and all before supper. It is another ruling of my grandmother. She does not like that the children should suffer due to any neglect on the part of the senior ladies of the house. By our bedtime, the house becomes part quieter. The ladies at cards leave. My uncle goes to his toilet and grandmother sits superintending the final activities of the house. No sooner did I lay my head on the pillow than I am in a different world.
