So that is how Narayani stepped into the folds of the distinguished RSA family,little knowing her altered status which was to place on her tender, young shoulders the responsibility of running a household in keeping with the stringent requirements of a rigid patriarchy even while upholding and fostering the social and religious traditions of a large extended family.At the tender age of eight, Narayani was just like any other Brahmin child bride of the early twentieth century, Schooling did not extend beyond the first or second standard, depending on the age, at which the girl got married.it was not considered necessary for a girl child to be educated- all that she needed to know was calculating the milkman and dhobi’s dues. She was reared and trained for the societal important twin tasks of child bearing and running a household which also involved doing heavy domestic chores. In the stifling milieu that was the lot of the Brahmin girl child, Narayani’s intellect and talents were like a flower in bloom. Music and books were the dearest companions of this young girl at an age when other girls would have been engrossed in fineries like jewellery and clothes. Not to say that Narayani was an ascetic. I, her granddaughter observed that she had a fine taste in jewels, clothes and utensils which was exhibited when she systematically went about the task of acquiring items for her daughters’ wedding trousseau. In that age of intellectual darkness, grandmother developed a taste for classics like The Three musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. She knew all the tales of the Bhagavatha Purana. Her recall and narration of scriptural stories was astounding, putting us, her grandchildren, who are living in the digital age to shame. She had a thirst for learning and knowledge which was insatiable. In her old age, when cataract dulled her vision and she could not read, she would request her grand children to read from these books. She read and reread, never bored never tired.
As was the custom in those days, she waited for puberty to go to her husband’s house. The initial years of her married life were tense and filled with anxiety because the birth of her eldest child, my mother, was considerably delayed. In those lonely, long years, music was her close companion. Shakespeare said, “ If music be the food of love, play on”. Well, music was the stuff that Narayani’s life was made of and those nimble fingers danced on the harmonium keys even as she sang in G, pitch 5.
