Chapter 6: Dear Old Grandma!

My vacations were always reserved only to visit my native place. Mom wanted my company to visit her ailing mother who was in the care of my aunt (incidentally Divya’s mother).

Destination Nagercoil!!

I loved the train ride from Chennai Egmore to Nagercoil.

It was mostly Anathapuri Express. My favorite stations:

1. Kovilpatti – what better station to get kovilpatti kadalai mittai?
2. Maniyachi Junction – I love it for the patriotic feel that surges within me every time I think of the hero!
3. Aralvai Mozhi – Beautiful windmills as far as the eyes can see!! Wonderful feast to the mind

But alas! Nagercoil is reached. The train journey ends there.

Then we take an auto to my aunt’s place.

My grandmother was 85 years old, completely bed-ridden for the past three years.

We would go there and take care of her for a few days during the vacations.

She could barely remember anyone, not even her daughters, leave alone me. I used to tell her stories narrated to 4 year-old children. Tears rolled down my cheeks. There were days when she did this to us when we were kids. Now I am doing it for her!! What a vicious cycle life truly is!

A heavy old woman weighing nearly 83 kg, she would urinate on the cloth-woven cot. Defecation was the challenge. My aunt, mom and I, all being small built, would struggle to carry her to the bathroom.

That was my only routine during all semester holidays, and I did not regret it.

But poor old granny, she recognized none of us.

“Granny do you know who I am?”

She would stare at me for long and then stare again still harder. She remembered nothing – not even her daughters, leave alone her granddaughter!

Leaving all the bravery behind, here was the incapacitated Jhansi Rani sitting beside me – staring hard at the floor – for her head wouldn’t turn much.

There are many tales of her heroism – fact or fiction I do not know!

At the age of 17, she had run away from her house, to evade marriage, she wanted to study – and her parents relented.

She had refused to pierce her ears with huge holes like the other uneducated women in her village. Wow!! I don’t know how truly proud I felt when I heard this. She had fought against the society and won! How had she? I don’t know. I wish to ask her. Only that she doesn’t remember it anymore! May be she was Jhansi Rani II, whom I ought to have interviewed when she was in her senses.

I had missed a golden opportunity.