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Grandpa

"Baba, ek cup cha paka ta",  I heard my grandpa say.
"Hazur ",  I complied.

My grandpa is in his 90s and anyone who meets him for the first time leaves dumbfounded by the storehouse of knowledge he has . He chants slokas from Geeta just like we would spell abcd. From Marx till Bhagat , he has read everything. 
I have keenly observed him from my childhood days and except for his skin which has frayed, he still seems so young like yester years.

He calls me baba and not by my name for he still treats me like a kid. One ritual that I fondly perform for him whenever asked for is preparing a cup of black tea for him.  Today as we sat basking under the sun, he took a sip from his tea and mused: "I didn't think I would make this far" . I knew he had a plethora of emotions surging. He has seen not only life but also degeneration . He has experienced everything from being a son to a father and now a grandpa. To hold a family together within a roof, I realise is not an easy task. There were times as he mentions when he had to make tough choices. He could either think about himself or his family and today after these many decades I wonder if he regrets any of those choices.

He unlike the rest of the world is nonchalant to his surroundings, be it bihu or dusshera you would find him glued to his books. I wonder had it not been books what would have kept him occupied. The best thing about him is he seldom complaints. He is happy to be alive. He says he has a lot many books to read from his shelf and a lot many things to learn. I had gifted him a cell phone last year and now he makes it a point to stay connected with everyone he holds dear. He can save contact numbers, make phone calls, read messages,  play songs. He in short has adapted himself to match the changing trends.

Today in the noon as we sat eating oranges, I sailed back in time to find us two doing the same decades back. Time,  I felt had got caged in memories. Nothing had changed in these many years. I, still am the same child who refused to grow up and he, still is the same adult who refused to surrender to age.

#Vacationwinter2019

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