Grandpa’s Hookah

A far cry from the fancy, stylish, exotic and ornate hookahs or hukkas   now available in a number  of varieties  and designs to choose from, my grandpa’s hookah was  a simple mundane affair , a non-fussy wooden structure , about 18 inches in height ,  with a   brass bowl  as the base. The brass bowl had an opening on one side from where to  fill it with water  and also to insert the wooden pipe with a brass end. One the top of the hukka was placed an earthen katori  , which had to be filled with some dried tobacco and  burnt charcoal taken right from the kitchen chulha. .

  Grandpa, in his  eighties  some 45 years back was   agile and alert , would walk straight, though he needed a stick for support due to poor eyesight. Having served under the British, he had travelled up to Kabul. . His hukka was very dear to him, beedis or cigarette  being only a poor substitute , if need be.Whenever we visited our village during vacation or for some ceremony,  I took special pleasure in filling his hookah and readying it for him to puff. Before handing him the open end of the rod or the नड़   to him, I would blow  into it as the gurgling sound of water always  fascinated me. It took me quite some days to understand that smoking hukka was all about drawing in instead   of blowing out. , and when once out of mischief, I drew in, I was coughing continuously for quite sometime, which showed, smoking was no fun !

One or two oldies in the village , though much younger to him were offered the same  hukka  for a puff   as a token of love and goodwill . After all Hukkapani was a means of showing respect, closeness and intimacy that the people shared  and it was also a symbol of brotherhood.

These days, in metros and all big cities, one hears about   hukka-bars on the analogy of other bars and restaurants, a spot for get-together and fun-making.