I don’t remember my first meeting with her, yet she does it vividly. Her thought doesn’t pass through my mind every day, yet I can hear her silent prayer for my smile to become broader every day. If there is something called love in this world, then it has to be her sweet voice uttering, ““Rahulji, sappada varriya da..:)””.
22 years is a long time. Those shining black hair has turned grey. Those beautiful eyes cant see the far troubles though they still dance to her words. Her wrinkled skin only adds to the beautiful radiation which she possesses in abundance. Meet my patti(grandmom), 64 young who continues to inspire me like no one else, who continues to love me more than anyone else.
I know I can never express this beautiful relationship in words, but fell compelled to write just to fill the void she left in my life when she left for some other place. Separated by a generation the intricacy of the relation could be felt by her soft touch on my shoulders, the longing look on my face as the car drove her away from me, the speed of the car as I felt was faster than ordinary.
Being the eldest grandchild of an extremely huge family, I was her only cynosure for so many years till my cousins were born. Even after my cousins were born, I could see her loving each of us equally with a surgeon’s precision. The old home, the bed time stories seeped in mythology which sounded even more mythical because of her mystifying voice, the curd rice being made into morsels and placing it into each of her star’s hands, her “specials” during festival…..Wish I could rewind my life! But her virtue and experience shone the most when any of us fell ill. The relentless prayers, her untiring efforts to make us comfortable and her soothing words which I really believe was more powerful than the doctor’s cure is something I don’t think anybody can do for me ever.
As, I sit and watch the world go by, I feel blessed to be her grandchild. Infant,kid,boy,teenager..now a man, yet I know I will always be her baby, her Raghulji….:)
