grandparents...

the last of my grandparents left for the heavenly abode today...she was about 95 or 96 years old...don't remember her exact age. She has been ailing for a while, with her health being on and off in the last few years...during her later days, she was more active than earlier. Still, her condition was not too good for the past 2 years and she was heavily dependent on others even for her basic needs. Her death was not a surprise for us as we all were almost prepared for this for quite some time. We all are glad that her transition from this world to that was painless.

I have seen all 4 of my grandparents. My maternal grandfather (dadu passed away when I was a kid. The only memory I have of him is him sitting in the porch on an easy chair, a non-rocking one. My paternal grandfather (dadu)was the next to go. He was a very strict patriarch. I've seen even my uncles taking an alternate path if they saw him coming. I was told that after I was born, he softened down a bit - probably, it was the joy of having the next generation of the family tree. He was a very learned man and despite living all his life in the remotest of villages, had a very good command on english grammar. "Tell me the 7 parts of speech and define each of them" - was his regular question to me whenever we visited him during our summer vacations. I was hardly ever able to answer that question to his satisfaction. My maternal grandmother (didima)was next. But I never spent too much time with her. Whenever we visited her place, it was for a short period of time and that too was spent having fun with cousins and relatives. She had a huuuge (really huge) bed in her room and all the kids used to sleep in her room, giggling all night and she scolding us :)

The paternal grandmother (thakuma) was the one with whom I had most of the moments. I got to know most of the mythological stories from her. She told me stories about different gods, kings, demons and great men. She even told me the legend of how the sacred river Ganga was brought to earth from heaven by a young devotee. When I was a kid, once she stayed with us for about 6-8 months or so. I remember her cursing the TV all the time as it never played anything in her language. All these will remain as memories for ever.

this is when I met her last...

Peace!