Reminiscing Old Times - part 1

There are so many fond memories of my granny, I dont even know where to begin.

Ever since I was about a year and a half old, I have been staying with my dear granny. My mom and dad both used to work and the only person who used to be at home was....not my granny but my great-grand-mother. :-) Yes, I've seen my great grand mother! My great grand mother, used to stay with us. Apparently, my dad had promised my grand-pa on his (grand-pa's) death-bed that he (dad) will take care of his (grand-pa's) mother forever. A wow which he diligently fulfilled! My great-grand-mother expired at the grand old age of 92 in 1986.

Thats me learning to ride my gift on my first birthday

When I was around a year and a half and my mom decided that she had to resume office, the concern was under whose care to leave me? My great-grand-mother was too old to take care of me. So my parents decided to leave me with granny. Each work-day morning, my mom used to finish cooking, take me along with her and drop me off to Matunga at my granny's place and then go to office at Bandra.

I used to laze around all day at my granny's place. I used to accompany my granny to the ration shop and wait along with her in the line to get rice, sugar, etc. It was such great fun. And then in the evening, dad used to come to Matunga on his way back home and pick me up. I also remember once my dad carrying me, had to jump from the train because it had broken down just before my station i.e. Goregaon.

Later on granny came and stayed with us. When I started to go to school, I remember granny used to accompany me to the bus-stop and wait until the school bus came and then pick me up again from the bus-stop. In school we used to get copy-writing books. Those books were used to practice running handwriting. My granny used to catch my hand and make me write those books. Most of the time, I used to fall asleep half-way through while completing the copy writing homework and then granny used to complete that for me.

During vacations, granny used to read me stories from chandamama, amar chitra katha. Granny knew very good English. She was convent educated and used to sign in English. For a lady born in the 1920s to be educated in a convent was pretty amazing, especially considering the fact that many girls in rural India even today are forced to skip their education and made to do household work.

I remember this one time when my granny and great-grand-mother were staying with us together at goregaon and my dad - always enthusiastic about going out, decided to go to Juhu beach. We ordered a cab and me, dad, mom, my sister, great-grand-mother and granny all of us went to Juhu beach in the evening. Each and every person on the beach was looking strangely at my dad. WHY?? Mostly people come along with their partners but here was this man who had come to the beach with an old lady barely able to walk - tugging at his shirt and clutching his arm.

Thats what I call a great grand reunion (great-granny, my young sis and me)

My 6th standard was the toughest for me. I got terribly sick during the second half of the school semester. I first had the chicken-pox. The way chicken-pox is treated is by caressing the pox by neem twigs. There's no medication and everybody just waits for it to go away. Its supposed to be associated with a lady god and apparently no medication should be taken. Then when I recovered from that, I got jaundice. For this I tried all types of treatment. Apparently there is no defined cure for jaundice in modern medicine, the doc just gives some liver tonic and thats it. So I got some ayurvedic treatment and some needle in water kind of treatment. All through both illnesses, my granny was the one who used to feed me. :-) Somehow then I managed to recover and give my exams and pass.

After great-grand-mother's death, granny used to shuttle between our house at Goregaon and elder uncle's house at Chembur. I used to yearn to meet granny and we used to go to Chembur nearly every weekend. I always used to pester her to come and stay with us in Goregaon. The first short trip I made with my granny was when I went with her to visit the temple at Pandharpur. It was, if I remember correctly, a short weekend trip. A river called Chandrabagha flows through Pandharpur. So, before visiting the temple, we all went to the river to bathe in it. Granny was bathing near the bank, but I being the adventurous, ever excited little boy, went to a little bit deeper part of the river. I didnt know to swim then (not that I know now) :-)).

Anyways, the soap was with me and granny needed the soap, so I started to walk back towards her. I'd just taken a couple of steps and I lost footing and I got drowned. I can still remember the sight inside the water. It was muddy and brown all around me. I tried to raise my hand and try to grab something and there was nothing and inside the water I shouted "HELP". Then I dont remember what happened. Of course somebody saved me but I dont remember if I gave the soap back to my granny. :-)) I must have. On the way back the bus stopped at some small place near some sugarcane fields and we all got fresh cut cane and bit our teeth into it. We also got fresh milk. Trust me it was absolutely fresh. A lady close to the field was milking her cow and as soon as she got her milk, she gave it to us to drink it. That was so awesome! I dont drink milk and have never liked it, but that day I drank and I loved it.

To Be Continued . . .