Ambujwadi 7: That time again

Once again, I ask: when did you come here? Bhimabai Kale tells me, after Indira Gandhi died.

You mean 1984? I ask, just a little puzzled because so far I've been hearing that the Pardhis started coming here only in the early '90s. She shakes her head. No, she says, I mean since the time of the sukhdi.

I'm really puzzled now. Someone explains, sukhdi, also called sattu, is a ball made of flour and sugar. The Government used to distribute these balls to us in times of drought and famine, so we'd have something to eat. They stopped doing this some years ago, and she's just confused that with the death of Indira Gandhi.

OK. I'm sorry to hear she is confused. But I know what Bhimabai is doing: dating something in her life by the time of the sukhdi.