My grandmother practically brought us up - me and my brother. Both my parents were working and at 3 months of age i was left with my grandparents and great-grandmother during the day. They talked to me all day, fed me, entertained me and im sure i entertained them and kept them busy. The result being that at 3, when my parents thought of getting me enrolled into a school, much to their horror, i could only speak in Punjabi. My mother would worry about it all the time. She talked to her friends about how the hell was her child was going to clear the interviews. But ofcourse, there wasn't much she could do about it, except talking to me in hindi and english for the little time she got to spend with me in the evenings.
Well, i did obviously get enrolled and i do speak in other languages. In the process, unfortunately, my punjabi isn't as good as i would have liked it to be. Lets talk about my Great-Grandmother first. She was a beautiful beautiful lady as im told. She passed away when i was 4. Yet strangely i remember very vividly the day she passed away, where she was laid down. I remember circling around her and saying, "Ab ajwain kaun banayega?" (Who will make Ajwain - its a herb, she mixed it with aloe vera and made something rocking out of it). At 4 - Ajwain is all i could be bothered about.
She was the wisest lady in our lineage. She explained the eternal truth to my mother which my mother dint really understand by herself and doesn't acknowledge even now. She explained that i was no ordinary child. I was a rose, a marble statue and that she should not let other people hold me. This obviously i'm told, with a big laugh, like what a joke my parents just cracked :/
My grandfather truly was a wise man - he dint really say any such flattering things about me, but he did teach me alot of things. He dropped me to the bus stop, picked me up in the afternoon, took me to the market and for walks. All those things that usually grand-fathers do. But my favorite thing was, in winters, he would make me sit in his lap and wrap us in a quilt ..... wow ! so safe and so cozy. Makes me feel all fuzzy when i think about it. He passed away when i was 10 i guess.
After that, it was me, my brother and our grand mother, spending the day together while our parents were away at work. We came back from school, we were fed, scolded, screamed at - with no effect alot of times though. My grand mother was swifter than us at most things, she could not sit still for 2 min. Her alternate afternoons were booked with her set of friends, who got together for Kirtan. She also had an investigative streak. She would have made a stupendous spy/journalist/CBI agent. She loved to sneak up on us with a test paper she found buried under our clothes in the cupboard where we had scored a big fat proud 0. She would report every single detail of every single fight to our parents.
As we were growing up, we alot of times had arguments over the sneaking up. And ofcourse, with my swinging hormones, i was far from polite. I could barely hide my irritation. I did feel horrible inside after i had said whatever i did, but could never really go back and apologize. It always was very tough for me to do, so i would express it in my actions.
Our grandmother saw us through school, our teens, college, early 20s. She was around everyday our lives, a part of every small and big thing that happened to us. Worrying sick and being concerned about every stupid step we took, yet not being able to do much about it.
Since we lost her 3 months back, i find myself thinking of her all the time. I don't really think of my wise grandfather and my beautiful great-grandmother at all, but i think of my grandmother all the time. I miss her in my daily life. Little things remind me of her - like when i eat badaam, when i eat achaar, when i keep something at the edge of the table (she was always wary of things kept on the edge), when its my birthday, every time i visit my parents, every time i go to her room, every time i open her cupboard.
I miss you and i always imagine you are in this cloudy misty heaven, taking a walk with dada ji, avoiding your mother-in-law who is sitting elsewhere on a cloud with her harp :)
