Almost all the newborn’s mothers I have seen start talking to their babies once they start talking or rather, try talking!
I always wondered why!!!
Though I couldn’t respond, my mother used to still talk to me on various things… Astonishingly, I remember some of them!!!
It’s shocking, but true!!
My earliest memories of grandmother is still very fresh in my mind… She was a lady always clad in a saree and a beautiful smile! ALWAYS!!!
My routine when I was there in coorg for vacations was… Getting up early in the morning and come to the angala or the verandah… I would see my grandmother going on her rounds, gently plucking the flowers… and talking to Dinga, our family dog..
She would then go take shower… I would silently wait outside the bathroom door to see her fresh like a daisy! She would look at me ahh her beautiful smile…
She would go to the pooja room and chant some verses from a tiny book… The house was full of the sandalwood fragrance! I was always curious to see what was in that book… When she’d noticed me, curiously watching all her actions, she would ask me to come in. she would make me sit on her lap, envelope my hands in her gentle hands and continue her chanting.
Though I enjoyed this session, I was very excited about the next part… In fact, all we grandchildren always waited patiently for that session to come!!
There was a beautiful, huge, shining, round, silver plate in the pooja room. It was meant only for the Gods! That plate had many cups arranged in it… I always thought the cups were the plate’s children!!!
Every cup had different things in it! One had tulsi leaves… the other had yellow rice… sandal paste… vermillion and what not!
All our eyes were only on the last two cups!
It had black sugar candy and petals of flowers!
After her daily pooja, she would give us the sugar candy as Prasad and those petals were our cups!!!
I now wonder how small I would’ve been then when I remember the petal of a hibiscus flower covering my whole palm!!!
For us, it was a session of masti… especially for raksha and I, it was very special coz we would never taste it again after the vacations!!!
After this, she would disappear for a while… My concentration was all centred on my cousins there. Me, being the youngest of the lot, was pampered the most! Everybody considered their duty to keep me happy! We would play hide and seek… jhoot aata… kalla police… and in every game, only I was the winner!!! My brothers would climb the trees and select the best fruit for me. I was their princess!
And even before I cried to let me climb the trees, my grandmother would call out for us. It was breakfast time! Even before she would said “Gubbi” my brothers would carry me and run towards the kitchen… It was a big kitchen… Had two doors! We would have fun running between the two!!!
As a 4 year old, I only remember the dosas she would make!! To team with it, was yummy honey and home made ghee!!! Hmmmm…. Trust me! I have never tasted something similar anywhere!!!
After the breakfast, I was usually ‘forced’ to sleep by my mother… I would wake up exactly in about an hour… My alarm then was the dog’s bark!! He would beg ajji to let him free of the leash and set out his hunt from the neighbor’s hens!
And then I would go and stand in front of the verandah’s door. I would call out loudly – AJJI….
And she would come, tuck me under her arms and ajji, me and my dear brother Venu whom then I would call Menu, would set out on our rounds of inspection!! Sometimes, I my younger cousin would come along with us. My grandmother would carry both us together and climb up the hill!!! She never differentiated between us!
She would take me to our estates… tell me about the history of each coffee plant… play with the creeper that would have soapy latex and we would make bubbles out of it!!!!
She would show me tiny eggs in the sparrow nest and warn me not to touch it! We would come across beautiful, colorful wild fruits… She would warn us not to eat them!
We would go to our uncles’ houses and have fun!! We would make little huts!! She would just smile with her eyes filled with love!
Every day was a new experience with her..
It’s almost 7 years since she bid me goodbye physically… but her love keeps her Gubbi in me alive even today and her memories are framed for life in me.
Everyone wondered how I didn’t do all the mischief I would have as a toddler… I realized it very recently… She never yelled at me or even raised her eyebrow in anger!!! Her only say was… “My Gubbi shouldn’t do such a thing.”
The child in me always strived hard to be her Gubbi… and will always be. The feeling of ‘wanting to be loved’ was so dominant in me that I never wanted to disappoint her.
Her fresh memories in me, multiply my happiness and halves my grief. I wish every child in this world gets a grandmother like her! J
Ajji.. I love you!
