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| CIRCA 2009. |
She
hides behind her mother and tells me "Dadi go and look for me
downstairs, I am hiding". I go down looking for her, then come
up again, look behind the sofas, the curtains, ask everyone around if
they have seen Aaria and then find a giggling away to glory Aaria!
"Found you," I exclaim very excitedly.
Then
it is my turn to hide and Aaria tells me to go hide in the kitchen,
then she counts up to ten says "Ready or not here I come,"
and comes looking for me in all the rooms, behind sofas, behind the
curtains, and finally comes to the kitchen and triumphantly declares,
" found you".
Oh!
the delights of childhood and the delights of indulgent grand
parents! Jharna and Anurag are quite flustered about this game of
Hide and Seek." Please explain, what is this game? I don't get
it", says Jharna.
I
simply say "Generation gap, my dear, you won't understand!"
They
will have to await their turn and the right time to play the games
with rules made and broken, tears, screams of joy and total abandon
of reason.
The
problem is that all do not understand this game. It is rather
difficult to grasp. To understand it there are a few conditions which
are to be met. You have to have allowed your hair to grey, your
wisdom to have blossomed with spending time on terra firma, finished
spending time working for your living, got health insurance, spent
time going into hospitals for health check ups, know all about
cholesterol, blood pressure, healthy foods, eating fruit, importance
of walking. Only when most of these conditions are met that you
understand the rules of the game!
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| COUNTING IN EARNEST! |
The
joy of seeing a little girl running from one end of the room to the
other to express her happiness at seeing you arrive at her house is a
sight worth a million dollars!
The time when your grandson tells you that because of what you taught him, he has done well in his exams! Priceless reward.
These
are the benefits of having grown up to that age when even the local
vegetable vendor calls you mummy! The modern form of calling you a
mataji!! Oh my goodness this is the dreaded age of all. But then I
reason that this also has its perks. Allow the vegetable vendor to
call you mummy and then go play hide and seek, with that little
person who trusts that you still have the energy to run up and down
the stairs, pick her up when she is tired, make the yummiest of food
to be told very bluntly on your face, "You don't know how to
make pancake, please learn it from boo"(bua,pishi, atya,
paternal aunty).
The
dialogues, the fights, the "go away dadi" said with full
force, is met with an ungrudging," I love you Dadi" in some
moments of rare consideration!
That
is life. The moments spent with honest, true, caring grand children
is reward for having greyed your hair in the sun!
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| CIRCA 2012. |
