Day 6 | Paper Boat Ride

When I think about my parents and siblings, whether they will ever accept us, I listen to this song. It seems to have been written just for me! The music, the lyrics, the videography – is simply amazing! I play this song on infinite loop ever so often and it brings solace to my aching heart. Please do watch the video Kagadada Doniyalli

I’m trying to translate the beautiful lyrics in English, although I don’t think I can do justice to the way it is penned in Kannada!

Is the time ripe for me to sail in a paperboat?

Did the invisible tear drop, misting my eye turn into a pearl yet?

Will the heaviness in my heart ever lighten?

Will I ever reach the cool shore?

Will I find the future pathway?

Beyond all my imaginations

Just show me another miracle

A tiny bag filled with memories I collected on the way is on my back

A silent bridge of thousands of unspoken words is in front of my eyes

Dear monsoon, all my foot prints in the journey are getting erased by you

I want to be the bare footed child in your lap

Will my heart ever be exhilarated?

Will I ever reach my home?

Will I find the future pathway?

Beyond all my imaginations

Just show me another miracle

Day 29 | When Amma spoke

This happened in October 2015. I wanted to write about this on the blog but somehow it never made it here.

In 2015, when Amma’s birthday was nearing something made me look for online gift delivery services to my town. I had done this search many times even before but there was no such facility available as Kundapura is a small town. But that very time, I landed upon a website that would deliver to my town at an additional delivery fee. I was beyond ecstatic to find that I could finally send something to my family. My mom is not a fan of cakes or sweets as much. I thought flowers would be the safest bet and ordered flowers and a card for her.

On the day of her birthday, I got a confirmation that my order had been delivered. After returning from work, I called Amma. This is how the conversation went:

Amma: Hello?

Me (hesitantly) : Huh… huh…looo

Amma: Haan Hello

Me: Amma, Seema here

Amma: Yes tell me

Me (thinking Amma didn’t hear that it was me, coz this was the first time she responded after hearing my voice, otherwise she would just go on silent mode): Amma, I’m Seema speaking!

Amma: Yes, I know!

Me (thought I was dreaming, heart paced faster than ever, pinched myself hard, didn’t know what to say next, mumbled in a single breath): Happy Birthday Amma

Amma: Thank you

Me: Amma, did you get the flowers?

Amma: Yes I got the flowers, they’re good

Me (Still overcoming shock that she spoke to me, but clueless what to speak next): ?!?!?!

Amma: God bless you. Be happy.

….. And she hung up

I was still in a daze. It all felt surreal. Abbas kept asking me what happened? And I took some moment to collect myself together and told him how that call had gone. We were both astounded at what had just happened. We couldn’t believe it, Abbas asked me many times if I had really heard her say all that! And I was like ‘Yes, yes, yes!’

Although our happiness knew no bounds that day, I still had a doubt that she had to speak to me normally as I had heard some background noise with a lot of people chatting in the background. She might have just done so to avoid an awkward situation. I dunno why but it was too good to be true that your mom had spoken to you after 9 years. In spite of the doubts, our hopes of being accepted had suddenly shot up. We thought this could be a small beginning. Abbas told me to call back in a few days to keep it going. I was terribly scared to call back again, I wanted to live in the exhilaration of having heard my Amma speak to me. I was scared that the next call would break that euphoria and that is exactly what happened. Next call went back to the usual scene of me calling and Amma not responding. Sigh!

Cut to 2016 October, I ordered a combo of flowers and some sweets. I think the website specifically asked for a mobile phone number and my Annu’s (dad) number was all that I had. So I gave his number and placed the order. Come 9th of October, I was waiting anxiously to receive a delivery confirmation and to call her. I had a tinge of hope that the history could repeat again. I received an email saying the order could not be delivered to the recipient as they had rejected to receive the delivery. I was devastated. I made a call nevertheless and this time asked Mantam to wish Amma first. But my dad had picked up and as soon as he heard Mantam’s voice starting to sing ‘Happy…’, he bluntly hung up. I was too stunned to react. Tammu started crying profusely, Mannu was visibly upset too. I decided from then on that I would not ask Mantam speak to them unless the relationship comes to good terms. I don’t want to paint a negative picture of my parents in their eyes.

Honestly, I was shattered beyond repair after that incident. I resolved not to contact them ever again out of disappointment. But I found myself texting my dad (dunno if he reads them at all) the very next day. The hope of reuniting with my parents is gradually dwindling in its strength. I just wish them well, that’s all!

Day 23 | Granny tales continued

Continuing about my Annamma from the previous post:

Annamma had a few unique qualities which I really admired. She was very detached from the worldly expectations of her or obliging to the norms of the society. She did what made her happy and did not give a damn about what others thought about her. For that reason, she was the best mother-in-law one could ask for. She let my mom take the reigns of the household and enjoyed her life from the backseat. She would provide my mom with advice only if it was sought from her. I have never seen the two of them argue or even bitch about each other to a third person, which was very rare to be seen. My granny would keep herself occupied with stitching, crochet, crosswords etc and my Amma always made sure that she procured all the resources for Annamma to keep her hobbies going.

Do you know that my Annamma was addressed as ‘Honnie’ by all her children and grandchildren. Brother’s wife is usually called ‘Honnie’ in out language Konkani. Then why was Annamma addressed that, you may ask? When her kids were small, they would hear her brother-in-law call her ‘Honnie’ and they learned by imitating him. The grandkids also followed suit later on. I used to ask her why she had not corrected her kids and taught them to call her Amma. But she brushed it off with an attitude of ‘Who cares what they call me?’ See I told you, she was very hip 🙂

Sindhu and I used to practice our Henna / Mehndi patterns on her hand ahead of Mehndi competitions in our town. She was an enthu cutlet when it came to encouraging us in anything under the sun.Sindhu would draw patterns on one hand and me on the other. When we were done, she would go wash her hands to let us try more patterns. Once we even talked her into letting us draw patterns on her back, arms and belly button. Boy oh boy, she was game for everything.

One of Annamma’s daughters inherited her passion for stitching and she had gifted Annamma a pair of quality scissors from Bahrain. Annamma loved those scissors to the core and enjoyed stitching more than ever with her new found toy. One fine day, she took a new sweing project and sat down on the drawing board to do the cutting first. Guess what? Her one and only pair of scissors were nowhere to be found. She got so enraged that she declared “Till I get those scissors back, I’m not going to sew anything”. It was like she had declared war and there was no way she would retreat.She stayed true to her words after that very day. She did not sew even as days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. My Amma felt really bad for her and even offered to buy her a new pair of scissors. But Annamma blatantly denied. My Amma then prayed to Lord Ganesha at a famous temple called ‘Moole (read as Moo Lay) Ganesha temple’. The specialty of this temple was that if you pray to the lord to find any lost object in exchange of a service or a task that you would pledge to do, it will happen. Believe it or not, soon after Amma’s prayers, the attendant from our school had come to our home for some reason. Just out of nowhere, the topic of sewing came up and Annamma narrated the story of the missing scissors (for the millionth time, she had been narrating to all and sundry). On hearing it’s physical description, the attendant had a Eureka moment and broke her the news that there was one such pair of scissors at school which was there since the exhibition day and nobody had claimed its ownership till then. He volunteered to send it through one of us kids the very next working day. All three of us refused that it was our deed, but Annamma was on cloud nine to have found her prized possession back and didn’t bother to take us to task 🙂

My Annamma was suddenly diagnosed with psoriasis when I was in college I think. It was a terrible disease as it spread throughout her body like bush fire. And she would say that the itchiness it caused was unbearable. Our family doctor prescribed Ayurvedic medicine and also a certain medicinal oil, which she had to smear all over her body and leave it on for an hour or so every day and take a shower. Annamma would just smear on a few parts of the body but that did not help in curing it. I started doing this for her every single day morning before leaving for college. I felt so good about doing something for my Granny who had always supported us all through our lives. It took many months to cure, but it did happen eventually. She got cured of the disease completely.

I really miss Annamma, she was like that friend we had so much fun growing up with. I dunno if I will ever be able to meet Annamma but I hope and pray for her good health all the time.

Day 22 | Gala Granny

In the previous post I wrote about how my Annamma got on our nerves and drove us crazy. But apart from that, she was the coolest granny anyone could ever have and we loved her to the moon and back.

Annamma was one of the highly educated women of her generation. She had passed metriculation (Class 10 of her times), was an avid reader, crazy cricket freak, fun loving and the most doting grandma. She solved crosswords and answered quiz questions alongside us like a pro. She knew names of all cricket players and watched cricket with us even burning midnight oil. She used to call “Brett Lee” battery :-D. She said that by mistake for the first time and cracked us up. She would purposely repeat it to make us laugh. Annamma was very interested in our acamdemic and extra-curricular activities at school and would always keep herself updated with all that was happening in our school. She used to feel so proud of our achievements and always appreciate us. God spare the guests who would visit our home, she would brag about our accomplishments to no end. We would hide our faces in emabarrassment.

Ajja and Annamma had an age difference of just 3 years. But in terms of education, Ajja had failed in class 4 and was forced to earn a living at a ripe young age. That was never a factor in their relationship as they loved and respected each other immensely. We used to hear stories about how they got married. Ajja was one of the most handsome men I have seen and he was known to have been sought after by many young lasses. The proposal for marrying my grandma apparetly came from a relative who knew both families. When they matched the horoscopes to predict the fate of marriage, they were told that marrying Annamma would bring prosperity to Ajja. He was going through a rough patch of life what with getting his sisters married, his brother educated and being the sole bread winner of a large family. The marriage was arranged and as per the soothsayer’s prediction, their union brought welfare to the family in all respects.

For as long as I can remember, Ajja and Annamma used to sleep in the same room but on different single beds with a distnace between them. I really wonder why! On occasions such as Annamma’s birthday or their anniversary, we grandkids used to request them to give each other a kiss. The embarrassment on their faces would be priceless. They would act as if they had never had any physical contact with each other. Ajja would wake up as early as 4 AM almost everyday. Annamma would follow suit, she would make 2 cups of coffee and they would sip them together. Both of them would then start walking in our front yard waiting for newspaper. On exam days,  I would wake up early to study and ask Annamma to make coffee for me too.

With Annamma by our side, we did not need any physical alarm. If we asked her to wake us up at a certain time, she would do it unfalteringly. With her skills to haunt us during our early age, we would be rest assured that her waking mechanism would put any snooze feature of alarm to shame. Apart from studies, Annamma was a pillar who supported us with our other activities as well. She became the audience when we had to practise singing, she would become the hair model when we had to try out new hairstyles, she was the hand model when we prepared for Henna competitions, she would help us in practistind speeches or drama dialogues. She was our companion while playing board games, card games, art and crafts. She was the guinea pig who was more than happy to taste our experiments in the kitchen. During the early years of our life, all the clothes we wore were stitched by Annamma.

More about Annamma in the next post….

 

 

Day 21 | Sibling Saga continues

I felt that I abruptly ended yesterday’s post as I still had lots more to write about. Continuing on the same lines today too:

• Sindhu and I both went for craft classes together during our summer vacation. Sindhu was really good at painting and I could come nowhere close to her. What I was good at was cutting, stitching and crochet which she disliked. If we took up any project as a team, we would do a great job together.

• I am going to embarrass myself by revealing that Sindhu and I used to bed-wet even when we were in school. Both of us used to sleep in a separate room on a double bed. My granny would get so pissed (pun intended) off with us. She would come to our bedroom every night like a haunting ghost and check our beds in a very evil way. She would make more than a couple trips every night. As soon as she would find a wet bed, she would bring the roof down even if was the unearthly hour when everybody would be sleeping. She would swicth on the lights, start yelling at us saying “You both are grown up donkeys now and still peeing on the bed. Shame on you.” We had to just get up, get washed and changed, then change the bedsheets and go back to sleep. We used to thoroughly ignore her presence and drift back to sleep. At times, we would be so irritated and would be in deep sleep that we would just tell her to go away, “It’s not bothering us to sleep on the wet bed, just leave us alone”. She was a fighter woman, my granny. Putting an end to our bed-wetting habit had become her life mission. I remember one night, we didn’t budge even after her repeated nags. She pulled our blanket away, we were snoring away to glory. She then pulled the bedsheet, pillows and everything she possibly could do. We didn’t give up and slept on the bare bed and she finally left. I think we were adamant and didn’t want to give in to her midnight madness. We both badly madly wanted to get rid of this habit. But it wasn’t in our control. We were then told that it was hereditary, so no fault of ours you see?

• We both loved singing and I can confidently say that we have beautiful voices too. You would find us humming all the time. Ours was a very old home, that was built by my great great grandfather. So the bathroom and toilet were in the same room but later they would’ve been separated with a nib wall that didn’t touch the roof fully. There were times when Sindhu would be in the bathroom and me in the toilet and vice versa. There have been times when we have been there for hours playing antakshari for no good reason that I can now think of. We have even splashed water to the other end and it used to be so much fun. I’m laughing so much now, we were such mad silly bums 😀

• There came a time when my Amma got very angry on both of us as we were being very careless with our clothes. We were wearing one set of clothes for an hour or two and then throwing it in the laundry basket without a care. She got mad at us and said “You both don’t understand the amount of pain others go through to get your clothes washed, hung for drying, ironed, folded and organised back into your closets. I am not going to fold or iron your clothes anymore”. I don’t remember how old we were, must have been in high school or pre-uni.  We didn’t see much weight in her words and thought they were empty threats. We didn’t give a damn and thought Amma would forget her anger after a few days. But to our surprise, she didn’t. After the next round of washed clothes dried, she ironed and folded everybody else’s clothes but ours. She crumpled the clothes and mercilessly dumped them in our wardrobe to teach us a lesson. We were still hopeful that she will soon be back to normal. We too ignored the crumpled mess and continued to pick the remainder of folded clothes. After some days, came a time when there were no more neat clothes left there to pick. But we were our Amma’s daughters too, we wouldn’t give up so easily. We started scouting for clothes that didn’t need ironing and continued wearing them. Neither did we bring the topic up nor did Amma, it was like the taboo that nobody spoke about. One fine night, when Sindhu and I had had enough of wearing only a selected set of clothes over and over again, we discussed and decided that we would make history that night. All the adults had slept, Sindhu and I switched the radio on, emptied all our clothes from wardrobe (which was in our grandparents’ room, using a torch) out to the hall without making noise. Luckily there were two iron boxes, we made do with some blankets as a base to iron. We kept on ironing, folding and piling up all the while listening to melodious songs, chatting and laughing away till about 4 AM. We then neatly arranged our fruits of labour in the wardrobe in a torch light silently. We went to sleep and eagerly waited for Amma to appreciate our efforts. Next day she didn’t tell us anything, we kept quiet too waiting for her to make the first move. Surprisingly, she still didn’t utter a word about it. Finally, we complained to her how she didn’t bother to acknowledge our efforts but is always the first to point our mistakes.  She mellowed down and cheekily said “I didn’t think you girls would have ironed all the clothes. I just thought you had folded and arranged them”. We were stumped! I think I have taken after my mom with the no-nonsense attitude.

Day 20 | Sisterhood

Some time back I wrote a post about my dad here. It’s my sister Sindhu’s turn today. I am going to resort to bullet points for my own convenience. 🙂

• Sindhu and I have an age difference of 3.5 years, we happily sandwiched our brother and cause him misery most times

• We were a riot together, ganging up on most occasions, arguing like attorneys in the court defending their case, supporting each other through thick and thin.

• At the mention of arguments, I remember Amma telling me how Sindhu never spoke till was was 5 I guess (Don’t remember clearly, but she had apparently crossed the maximum age when a child generally starts speaking) My parents were very worried as she had started using sign language to converse. A well-meaning soul suggested my parents to visit a temple in Kalawara where one has to buy silver ornaments shaped in the form of the body part that has any disability and put it in the Hundi (a donation box of sorts) and soon the disability gets cured. My mum, being the believer that she is, went to the temple and deposited a silver tongue in the Hundi. Soon enough Sindhu began to speak and there was no stopping. Amma would sometimes even joke that it was a mistake when she would lose arguments with Sindhu

• Sindhu had curly hair and after a shampoo session, she would look like Putta parthi sai baba 🙂

• Sindhu was the last to go to school, by the virtue of being the youngest. When she was still at home, my bro and I would discuss about exams and she would think that a doctors comes to examine us a school

• Sindhu and I would always experiment with cooking. On most evenings, we would try out new dishes and our Annamma (granny) was our partner in crime. Three of us would hog the freshly cooked experiment dish as it would always come out amazing. While Sindhu had this gifted talent of inventing new recipes which turned out superb 99% of the time, I had a special skill with which whatever I tried to cook always ended up tasting the same even with different ingredients 🙂

• I had this habit of drinking gallons of water and peeing at the same rate. So whenever we made some plans to start doing something, be it cooking, crafting, going somewhere, playing, whatever it could be, I would always say “Let me go pee first before starting”. Sindhu named peeing as “Shubh Karya” (auspicious task). Eventually it so happened that as soon as we decided on some activity, Sindhu would say, “Seemakka, you go and do your Shubh Karya first. Then we’ll start”

• As any sisters worth their salt would fight over clothes, we did too. There was a time when we would fit into each other’s clothes. We had one whole wardrobe for ourselves and that was the best time as we had more clothes than ever because we exchanged. There was one red chudidar which was both out favourite. Believe me, we have fought over that dress as if it was our ancestral wealth. Sometimes, I used to reach the wardrobe first to claim my right over it and then there was Sindhu who even hid it once so that I couldn’t find it.
• Whenever we would go to restaurants, if we ordered a dish that has 6 pieces of XYZ, and we would be only 4, I would think that I wil get only one piece so let me eat it slowly by taking my on time. But Sindhu used to gobble it down super quick. One day she told me the secret as to why she did that. If she would finish her first piece quickly, whenever someone would try to serve the remaining two pieces, they would always put one piece on her plate on seeing that it is empty. Then I learnt this trick and started doing the same. Sindhu would pull my leg saying “I am running in loss after teaching you my tricks. I should have taken the advantage myself and not told you.

• When Sindhu was very small, in one of her first exams she copied from a friend of hers. She was probably too young to understand the concept of exams. The question was to write father’s name. Luckily the boy whom she had copied from shared the same last name as ours. So the teacher did not come to know and she gave marks. Me, being the responsible elder sister, tried to give her a lecture and made her understand the meaning of exams and why copying in never a good idea.

• Apart from food, we also have a crazy passion for colourful junk jewellery. Recently I saw Sindhu’s photo secretly shared with me by a relative. She was wearing beautiful junk jewellery and I started grinning ear to ear to see my sister sharing the same love even after all these years.

• I can go on and on forever but I need to put a stop at this point and catch some sleep.

Day 18 | Do you remember?

Annu (dad),

• those mornings when you would shave and I would stand right next to you talking nineteen to the dozen?

• when you would smear after-shave on my cheeks to scare me that I would grow beard just like you and I would freak out?

• when you, Ajja (grandpa) and I would read newspaper simultaneously sitting in a circle and pass on the sections that we had read clockwise till all three of us would have read the entire newspaper?

• the time when we would solve crossword along with Annamma (grandma)?

• those nights when Amma would have cooked something boring, you would go out on the pretext of finishing some pending work at the shop and return with Biryani or some other delicious takeaway from Shetty Lunch Home?

• the numerous times that you bought me clothes in various shades of yellow in the quest for that perfect shade that would suit me?

• the Harry Potter books that you brought for me whenever you returned from your Bangalore trip?

• how you never failed to buy boxes of Kaju Katli for me as it was both our favourite. (It is Mannu’s absolute favourite too. I told you she is your replica, didn’t I?)

• the time when you took me out in your car early mornings to teach me driving as soon as I turned eighteen?

• how you would tell Sindhu (my sis) and I that you would even go to the extent of bringing tigress’s milk for your daughters’ sake, if need be.
• Annu, would you please bring me my dad’s love back?

Annu’s Antics

Father’s Day is around the corner in Australia this weekend. Last time when it was in some other part of the world, I wrote an emotional post. I wanted to write something different this time. My dad (I call him Annu) had a unique sense of humour and he was cheeky in his own way. I feel that I haven’t written much about the fun and sweet memories of my childhood on the blog. This post is solely dedicated to some of the memorable incidents related to Annu that still bring a smile on my face.

Annu would always wear a half sleeved shirt, a white lungi and his million-dollar smile. He only had a couple of trousers that he wore only on special occasions. We had a wholesale agency of a very popular FMCG company, say ABC. ABC once invited all wholesale dealers (WDs) from Karnataka to a 2-days conference in Bangalore. The accommodation was booked in a 5-star hotel, say XYZ. Annu took an overnight bus from Kundapur to Bangalore. He packed his trousers for the conference in his suitcase and travelled in his lungi as he was more comfortable in it. When he reached Bangalore, he hopped on to an auto-rickshaw and asked to be plied to XYZ hotel. The auto driver was flabbergasted for a moment at the proposal of a man in lungi asking to be dropped at a 5-star hotel.

Driver: Sir, where exactly near XYZ hotel do you want to go?

Annu: I want to go to XYZ hotel only.

Driver: Sure sir, I will take you to XYZ hotel. But tell me which place near the hotel do you need to visit. Give me the exact address.

Annu: Don’t worry about it bro. Just drop me in front of XYZ. I’ll manage from then on.

They finally reached the place. My dad paid the fare, got off with his luggage. Before seeing off, he sarcastically said to the driver:

Annu: Sir, can I please request you to stay back for a while. In case the hotel staff doesn’t provide me entry because of my attire, you might have to drop me elsewhere.

Driver: Ayyoyyo, sorry sir! Please forgive me. It was my mistake.

Annu just smiled and went about his business 😀

———————-

This incident happened during my parents’ wedding. After the wedding ceremony, when the newlywed couple enter the groom’s house, along with many other customs, they play a fun game. They are made to sit face to face with a big pot in between them. The post if filled with coloured water and lot of flowers I think so that one can see through it. The priest drops a ring into the water and both the groom and bride have to immerse one of their hands in the pot and fiddle around to find the ring. Whoever finds the ring is declared the winner. Amma was a 20-year old shy bride then amidst a crowd of strangers that she was going to call family from then on.

On the count of three, when the priest dropped the ring in the pot, both my parents put their hands in. Annu, being the cheeky groom that he was, naughtily clasped Amma’s hand inside the water and nobody noticed. Amma couldn’t react out of coyness. He did not let her find the ring by restricting her movement. He moved a couple of his spare fingers that were not holding Ammas’s hands and found the ring. He then let go of Amma’s hand and declared himself to victory. We grew up listening to this story from Amma.

—————-

Annu was a natural at predicting things. Whatever he said would come true. But this nature of his mostly irked us during cricket matches. While we would all be engrossed in a match, Annu would declare out of nowhere “Six on the next ball!!” and what do you know? The player would obediently hit a six as though following Annu’s orders. We would pester him saying “Annu, please keep saying four or six”. He would say it seldom but whenever he did, it did happen. The worst was when he would announce “Out” and the batsman would promptly return to the pavilion. I remember one instance when he said “Out” thrice before three consecutive balls and the bowler claimed a hat-trick!! We would plead for him to keep mum mostly as he was more dangerous than the players themselves 😀

—————–

Once one of Annu’s regular customers came to the shop and bought his routine items and left. Surprisingly, he came back to the shop very evidently distressed.

Annu: What happened? Why are you tensed?
Customer: I had brought a bundle of notes with me but I can’t find it now. After buying items from your shop, I went to another shop to order the stuff I need but then I realized that I had lost my money. I really am clueless what to do.

Annu: Take off your lungi!

(There were many other customers and the staff members around who were astounded by listening to Annu’s comment too)

Customer: Whattt???

Annu: I said take off your lungi. Would you like me to help you to take it off?

Customer: What are you saying? I am sharing my problem with you and you are making fun of me.

Annu: Just listen to me and take your lungi off.

Customer (Puzzled, yet trusts Annu and takes the lungi off. The bundle of note falls from his hips onto the ground): Oh my god!! How did you know?

Annu gave the same knowing smile  😀

 

Fathers’ Day

Dear Annu,

My timeline is filled with messages dedicated to Fathers today and I feel left out. I want to tell the world too that I have the most amazing dad but I keep it to myself. I don’t want to bring any more shame to you than I already have! Well, I have learnt to count my stars and focus on the positives. Though we haven’t interacted or seen each other for over a decade and not a single day goes by without your thoughts, I don’t want to mourn the lack of your presence in my life. I just wanted to write this post to recount some fond memories of my childhood connected with you Annu 🙂

• You would always bring a box of Kaju Katli for me whenever you went out on your short trips.
• You would buy latest Harry Potter books and Sidney Sheldon novels for me when you would return from your Bangalore business trip.
• I still cherish those early mornings when we would read newspaper together and the way you, grandpa and I would divide the newspaper pages between us and kept passing on the page that we finished reading in a circle.
• I remember the time when you loved Madhuri’s colourful costume in the song ‘Ek do teen’ and took me to a tailor to get a similar one made in my size. You sat there for quite a long time to help the tailor understand how exactly you wanted the dress to be.
• You would always buy me yellow coloured clothes as you thought the colour suited me. Every time I wore the dress you bought, you would have a look and say that you would buy another shade of yellow next time. Even now, when I wear yellow I feel so nostalgic and closer to you J
• Solving crosswords was one of our favourite things to do along with grandma
• Whenever Amma made pure veg dinner, we would scorn under our nose yet eat very little and say that we were full. On many days you would finish dinner and go to the shop to finish some pending tasks. On days where we all would have had an uninteresting dinner, we would keep our ears alert on your return to hear the sound of a plastic bag in which you would have got some non-veg takeaway for our second round of dinner to quench our unsatisfied souls. Amma would scoff at how our appetite had magically reappeared late at the night
• If I were to call myself punctual compared to the Indian stereotyped standards, then the credit must go to you. You were an epitome of punctuality! Amma and all of us would hop into the car as soon as you adorned the driver’s seat no matter what state we were in. We learned to get dressed on the go. Amma had even mastered the art of pleating her saree as she walked towards the car

 

I might want to write another post as I recall many fun incidents now. Before I go, all I remember is your dialogue that you would often tell Sindhu and I “I could go any length for my daughters’ happiness. Even if you asked me tigress’ milk, I would get it for you”. Annu, would you please get yourself back to me? That is all I seek, pretty please!

 

Good old memories

Dear Annu,

It brings a smile on my face when I remember

• How you would say that you would even go and get tiger’s milk for your daughters, if the need be 😊
• How you would get me the latest Harry Potter books or Sydney Sheldon novels when you would return from your Bangalore trips
• How you would get dabbas of Kaju Katli for me as you knew I loved them to the core
• How you would buy yellow coloured clothes for me and were never satisfied with any of them and would try for another shade of yellow next time
• How you took me to a tailor once when I was a small kid and insisted that he sewed the exact same colourful outfit as Madhuri Dixit in the popular song “Ek Do Teen” for me
• How you would sneakily get takeway from restaurants on days that Amma cooked dishes that none of us enjoyed
• How I would stand next to you and keenly watch you shave, and you would smear the after shabe on my cheeks as well and scare me later that I would grow a beard soon
• How you would ask my opinion before taking a few decisions and make me feel so important

Well, I can go on and on but then these memories never fail to bring tears along with the smiles. How I miss you Annu, I cannot say in words 😞