WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY

Every morning as soon as I wake up, I am greeted by the three most beautiful people on earth. They are always there and never fail to give me those lovely smiles. The beauty of these people is not only the skin deep variety, their's is the innocent, trusting, pristine and loving faces, type of beauty. My day therefore starts brilliantly.

These beautiful faces are of my three grand children. They truly love me. Bright, fresh, happy, and full of happiness. They are life's gift to me. Absolutely precious!!

When my own children were small, I thought that they were very beautiful. My most practical and down to earth husband would bring me down to earth, by saying, " to every mother her own children are the world's most beautiful children". Now of course, he cannot say this to me, as these are my grand children and not my children!!

Aaria the youngest one, who is now one year and eight months old, is very careful with her words. She uses them judiciously. Never one to speak too much, she does say tractor, outside, upstairs,besides the mundane mummy,dad, dada,nana, and the most used no!!

She takes after her father,who himself was precocious in his use of words. He would say motorbike, alcugator(calculator), but would refuse to talk all the nonsensical stuff, we wanted him to say.

Anurag had invented quite a few words, like katu for chakoo(knife),pindada for pajama, pachach for chammach(spoon). When Anurag was about 2 years old, we took him for a boat ride on the river Gomti near Lucknow. He perhaps did not know the word "boat", but wanted to convey something about the boat ride, so he composed a sentence,"Do pachach, ek batti". Translated, it meant 2 spoons(oars)and one light(the lantern on the boat).

I am waiting for such descriptive compositions from his daughter Aaria.

Aaliya, the sweet,innocent, docile, calm, doe like daughter of Chaitali, is quite the opposite of Chaitali. Chaitali was the dare devil, bindass, die hard adventurous kind of a person. She was always willing to go anywhere, no dark room could scare her. That was until a friend of hers told her about a ghost living in the tap on the front lawn.After that she would never venture out in the lawn in the evening!

Aaliya is such a delicate darling, she is even scared of loud noises!!

Kunaal is the absolute intelligent geek. He seems to take after his nana, who was the intelligent kind, with a head for maths. He is also very mischievous and has a great sense of humour. He is very kind and takes great care of his younger sisters and also mamu!! In this he takes after Raj, his father.

Both Kunaal and Aaliya are very artistic people. Paints, brushes and paper are their constant necessities. I often tell them to put the date and their signatures on their creations. The fond and absolutely biased grandmother that I am, I imagine them to be great artists one day, whose childhood art will be in much demand some day.

I love to see these children. I re - live my childhood, my youth and then the pressures of time cease to exist for me.

It is rather strange that I realise that I am of vintage value now as far as ageing is concerned, only when I look at my grand kids. I then think, "Oh my gosh,I should be feeling old!!" I don't. I feel as agile and nimble footed as I was in college. My mind still wanders off in day dreams, and I can still enjoy looking at the rainbow, the pouring rain, a frosty morning, and the setting sun, without thinking of the imminent rain and the puddles that it will cause. I do not think about the drying clothes which will all get wet once again. I do not dread a drab and grey morning. All mornings are bright and beautiful for me. I make them cheerful for me. I love the rain, the thrill of getting wet, sometimes makes me simply walk out in the rain,without an umbrella. I remember Chaitali and her friend Puja getting wet in the rain on our terrace one day, long long ago. They both looked at each other and laughed- their hair was standing on end- it was charged!! That was scary for me, but the girls could not stop laughing.

The setting sun holds great fascination for me. The colours are so very brilliant, an amalgamation of red, yellow, pink and blue. It is truly amazing, the sky is glorious,as it is the last sketch of the day, with all these vivacious colours. It is simply bewitching!! Sometimes, the thought does cross my mind, " another day gone by." Yet the thought does not make me sad, it rather makes me happy, to think about another day gone in living and enjoying my life. The view of the setting sun from near Anurag's house in Nashua is just too dramatic for words.It has to be seen and the beauty needs to be absorbed.It is absolutely amazing.

The rising moon is another view of the sky which leaves me happy. The blue of the sky and the slowly rising moon and the slow twinkle of the stars capture my gaze and I love to keep watching, until the sky darkens and the stars increase their number.

The music of running water in a fast flowing river is another fascinating thing that I love. Daksum in Kashmir, and Sutlej at Raison near Kulu in Himachal Pradesh, come to my mind instantly. Both these places were quiet. There was just the river and it's sound. Ganga in Haridwar is pretty too, but there are so many tourists there, that the beauty of the river and its music gets lost. The Ganga near Joshimath, Rudraprayag and Devprayag have another tale to tell. The river before Haridwar is very clean, fast, shimmering and noisy.

Life and the joys and beauty of nature are so pure, pristine and in so much abundance. They are available for everyone absolutely free. One only needs to have a little bit of time to look outside and appreciate what we have. It needs just a few moments of looking and absorbing, and what it gives back, is a lot of rejuvenation. Take my word, try it...