Skip to main content

Grandpa and me







I am the eldest grandchild in my family. And being the eldest, I was pampered a great deal by my grandparents. My aama (grandma) and baa (grandpa) always shielded me from every possible dangers including thrashings from maa. I have pleasant memories of evening story sessions as grandpa took me to bed. Aama would oil my hair and tie pony tails which resembled coconut trees that I used to draw.

Sundays meant elaborate sessions with my grandparents. Baa would trim my nails, aama would fondle me to sleep. Their bed room was literally my playing room, my story book reading room, my painting room and what not. With time, as I grew, I got a room of my own but their room was still my favourite one. When I left for hostel, I missed them more than I missed my parents.

 It was in the year 2014, I had come home after my exams when aama received a pressure stroke . She couldn't make it. I had spent a month as he lay sick on her bed. All of a sudden, there was a role reversal. I could comb her hair, powder her freckles, clean her face. There wasn't a single minute when I left her. I would talk to her, hum her to sleep. It was a month long struggle. Baa would read her verses from the Geeta, I could see him choke. He was kind of preparing aama for her journey. Aama, finally left us and with her she took away my fondness for their bedroom, it no more holds meaning without her.

Fast-forward today, my grandpa is lying in this hospital room. As I type this post, I am stealing glances to see if he is okay. He will be okay in some days but the fact that he has aged is something which I fail to digest. I have been trying to tell him that I am fine but he wakes up now and then and sighs that I had to lose sleep. I can't help but smile at his love for his grandchild. I can't read stories to him but can stay by him as he sleeps peacefully. He keeps asking, "When will we go home?"
 'Soon', I whisper.



Comments

  1. Unknown3 August 2020 at 08:36

    Change is inevitable but it must be joyful till you hold the life within you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Checks and balances of life!

I wasn't always who I am today. It took a lot of courage to break past my shell. Oscar Wilde  had once stated that knowing what you want to be in life becomes a curse because you invariably become that but not knowing is liberating, there are endless possibilities of who you can become. I too didn't know who I was going to be. Today, I realise it was liberating. I never knew i could find my voice some day. Now that I feel liberated,it becomes difficult to remain confined. We need to grow, evolve into better beings each day. We need to grow past the "checks and balances" of life. I remember Fuller here,  Fuller has asked us to be a part of a process of this evolving planet. He wants us to be "verbs" not "nouns"!  Here is a tale of an introverted me who knew not what to expect from life .  ....... I would talk less at school, not attend socialising events, avoid looking at stranger's eyes while on the road. In short, I wanted to be invisible to t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sea (ii)

"I want to see a setting sun", I told him as we sat in the shack looking at the bright sun gleaming over the waves. "Sure, let's not move anywhere", he readily jumped over the idea. We talked about everything that we had anticipated all along, this trip, our future together, family back home as we nonchalantly waited for the sun to set. It was only when the waiter brought a lamp to our side when I noticed that we had missed the whole idea of viewing the sunset! "Phew! I don't see the sun", I yelled out alarmed "laa", I heard him say. " Well, isn't it good that we can again come back tomorrow and sit in the same spot waiting for the sun to set", he remarked. Well, this is what I like about him. His ability to look at the positive side of life. Well, if not a sunset, we saw a pale moon's silvery gleam over those tall waves. We laughed and talked over endless cups of tea and food. While it was time to leave the shore, we di...
Post a Comment
Read more

Home in the mountains

 The tiny mountain lights showed me home, Home: a fluid entity which marks no land. I opened my palms to feel the chill and yet I felt it's warmth in the way it held my gaze Unfaltering, of a different magnitude. I don't belong to the hills and yet A part of me was always here waiting, For me to claim my roots. And thus those lights,led me   home.
Post a Comment
Read more