If only you were here...

They start their life together a few decades ago - young, clueless, stars-in-eyes! Life seemed a bed of roses until well “life” happened – they toiled to build a family together, to make ends meet facing the everyday challenges! But for them, this struggle – this journey was worth all the trouble simply because they had each other….

But today in the twilight of his life, despite the relaxed routine without the ensuing daily struggles and company of doting grandchildren, he was filled with a sense of incompleteness. The only thought constantly looping in his mind is “if only you were here”…

This piece is in response to Write-tribe 100 Words on Saturday of  "If only you were here"

Today my mother lost one of her best friends to cancer, a few months ago she lost he fav BIL to heat-attack! Death is a sad reality that snatches away our loved at the most unexpected of the times. The pain of the one being left behind...

Here is hoping that we get the chance to drive to the sunset of our lives with our better halves for company - Amen!

A slice of Nalini's life ...

Take a trip along with me to late 60s into a temple town in Kerala....

In the town of Guruvayur, lived a girl 'Nalini' in her late teens. Just out of school, she was excited to start her college life. Her life was the idyllic  filled with the simple joys n innocence of a small-town 'temple town' life. She was bought up in a house full of strong ladies - her mom and two aunts as her father was a govt employee in the far away land of Andra(Ho! the distance of 1000 Km was indeed v far those days). Hers was the typical middle-child life - her mom had her hands full with the younger bro in  crucial class ten and the elder sister having given birth to the first grandson in family. So Nalini's time was spent frolicking with her maiden friends n pampering her little nephew - as picture perfect as it could get!

But(there is always a but) the good times didn't last - tragedy stuck n Nalini's father suddenly passed away! Our hardly eighteen year old Nalini had to become the bread winner of the family (Sister already married, Bro was still a school student). Overnight she finds herself in city of Hyderabad to take up her dad's job.

Now imagine being in her shoes - shes somebody who's never ever stepped out of Kerala, her medium of education (n well the only language she could comprehend) was Malayalam. This was the pre-TV, pre-internet era and her exposure was next to nothing! All of a sudden, she finds herself  in Hyderabad where  her job needed her to read n write Telugu, the food was a far cry from what her palette was used to n the room she called her house was smaller than the store room of her home back in Kerala....

Fast forward to 40 years later, Not only did she manage to master Telugu(thou the 40 years couldn't wipe the Malayalam accent :-P)  shes recognized today as one of the most valuable contributors in her department.

BTW 'Nalini' is none other than my mom :).

Ho what I wrote here is just icing on the cake - life threw many other googlies at her but she faced them all with her chin up - goes without saying that I never needed lessons on being a strong woman :).

Funnily thou, it took me more than 30 years to recognize my mom for the strong woman she is!

Written for As Beautiful As Your Work  as a part of Mia contest, for Womensweb

Linking this to AtoZ challenge - N is for 'Nalini'.!

A sat afternoon at home.......

I remember mentioning in a post, that it was only v recently that I knew my mother was a v avid reader. Yea the hours she consumed daily reading newspapers and Malayalam magazines should have given me a hint!  I guess moving to hyd a few decades ago where Malayalam novels arent easy to find made her quit the habit and never look back at it.

It so transpired, that the other day I was at a book store close to office accompanied by Sabs. This bookstore("DC Books" if u want to know) stocks a enviable collection of Malayalam books too. So on a whim, I decided to pick a new novels for mum. With sabs in tow, I was rest assured to make the correct choices! The books we ended up picking(v skeptically I should add - cause I hv no clue what genre my mom Will love) were these:

From L-R Book 1 is a take on Mahabharata from Karna's view(v similar to "palace of Illusions" am guessing), Book 2 - the acclaimed "My Story" by Kamala Das (simply cause her ancestral home was literally a stones throw away from my mothers place n so there was a general associated curiosity), Book3- translation of "Unaccustomed Earth"!

As expected, she pooh-poohed it declaring that she should be reading "Spiritual books" now n not some jumbo-mumbo fiction! But dint I know her betta...... The v next day as soon as all of us stepped out of the house she curled up with her copy of "My Story" and dint budge until she read the last page (:-P)!

Err the only side-effect of it was that we had to take along some take-away for her lunch as was too engrossed in the book to bother to cook(!!!)

A tall Story...

Literally! Go, look up this link to know what am saying...

http://www.punemirror.in/article/62/2012062820120628153417190890402a3/A-tall-story.html

You guys rock!!!

I am going all-empathetic with  them.Cause thou am no-where near their 6'+,  Right from my kinder-garden days I was the tallest girl around ~~ so much so that when me was a little more than 10, I could give any girl-boy of my age a run for their money what with me towering above them at a good 5'7'' :-D. (Reason for quite a bit of heartburn for my mom... no prizes for guessing why)!

Thou today am proud to be the tallest lady in at least my circle, it was reason enuf to cause more than fair share of despondency especially during those not-sure-about-myself awkward teen-age!

Lifes Surprises!

I had always thot that I inherited the love of reading from my dad, seeing him devour books as we grew up! Possibly am right, but things over last few weeks makes me wonder ~~ is it jus from my dad that I inherited this love for books???

Today my mom~~ who is ridden off quite a few of her responsibilities(read marrying off her daughters) in life has at-last some 'Me Time'. N surprise, surprise!! She seems to be devouring books(Thou they all are these spiritual books!) at a pace that surprises me. Her excitement when she lays her hands on the latest edition of her fav book is as palpable as a 7 year old when he gets hold of his fav comics book....

N not jus books, she is suddenly this kool-mom who seems to be enjoy looking up cook-books and now has her definite list of 'To-see' programs in TV. Now if you are somebody who knows my mom, you will know that she was somebody who believed in cooking-for-survival(at least once we grew up!) and who thot that TVs are meant for jobless people in the world!!!!!!!


Life can still surprise you huh!

Two Weeks....

.... s at the home you bought up in  has this humbling effect on you rt... it kinda rips off all airs that you have around you and all that you are left with is a craving to go back to those good old days when being daddys gal was the sure shot solution for every malady in life! Haaaa.....

Probably cause this was the longest time I spent there in the last 5 years and 2 weeks is enuf time to look back and reflect on all those growing up days.  Indeed its this reflection that makes makes u realize that all is left of those days is memories and well things would never be the same again.

Esp when  ma litt sis is on threshold of taking a huge leap in her life, this trip bought back all those bitter sweet memories ~~ of the daily cat fights that would often boil over to physical fights but again at blink of eye we stand united on the face of a mom breathing down our necks, of the first crushes, of the teeny-weeny thing who would climb up the balcony grill to chat up with the neighbors, of the not-so-little b'day gal who gobbles up the entire box of chocs sharing it with jus her best frnds(ignoring he rest), of the most consistent winner of the 'Most talkative kid', of 'the tantrum queen', of the gal who would be walking off in the opp direction even as the   rest of the school kids would be walking in the direction of the school (and would then want us to believe that the school has declared a hol), who would sneak away the stick from her teachers desk every other day(!).

Indeed time flies....

You know ur mom is visiting when.....

When u r greeted early in morn with... no, not with morn tea or even the damn paper... but with  a ounce of kashaayam tht refuses to go down ur throat...

When all ur medicines (n bottles of them) that were tucked away to oblivion, are all dusted, lined up and then horrors of horrors.... Its stuck rt under ur nose until u oblige n swallow it up(saves hrs of nagging u c)

When ur undies which until then was strewn all around the place (n every morn there is a big hunting expedition to esp pair up the socks) is found neatly packed into separate bags - one for me n other for hubbs(the expression on hubbs face as he opened the drawer was worth a sight)

When U hv somebody who runs off every 15 mins to shoo off the pigeons who hv made ma balcony their home(the mess they make!)

When the food is xtra spicy cause her son-in-law likes it tht way!

:-). Yea yea u got tht rt ma mom - sis is visiting me for a good 1.5 months.... Yippppeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

N ofcourse with the sis visiting comes along god-worshipping her 'jeeju' (it can drive me up the wall!), with insolent requests to hug her to sleep(:-D), to bugging u till u shut the dam lappie down, to ofcourse being indulged with lotta new dresses - yum yum goodies to treat on :-D

Who do u think came visitng last week??

Lemme give u a hint....

The persons typical schedule included ~~ Getting me ma cup of bed tea as soon as I wake up, pottering around in kitchen, Finding every trace of dust n dirt hidden in all nook n corners, removing cobwebs, mending all ma torn blankets n bedsheets, washing ma cant-wash-in-machine clothes n of course going blah-blah abt all the 'N' things am supposedly messing up with! Ha the last thing should given u the hint... Who else but your mother dearest ** Smiles**. N all this at the cost of missing her fav serials .......... Her fav past-time last week included talking to me (Even thou i acted pricey sitting b4 the lappie more often than not) Did I tell ya that when she realized ma maid is doing a disappearing act for a few days, she postpones her trip by few days (Yipppee) n makes sure the house is presentable (if not spic-n-span)!

N in few days joins ma sis who decides to indulge us all with gifts cause she is got a barely-there hike !! N her biggest past-time u said?? Ganging up with jeejeu n making poor mes life as miserable they can.... Grrrrrr!

One thing that stuck me is the confidence with which I dish up dishes for them... A confidence that I lack even in ma day - day cooking.... In rare cases when I do dish out something((N b4 u cry foul.. Lemme clarify I do all the donkey work...) I end up calling ma Mr. Pricey hubbs 10 times to taste the food! But not when its being dished out for ma sis n mom... I know whatevea I do they just gona lap it up with no whimper :-D!




It did Taste Yum tooo!


N then they left yest leaving me all :(

PS: When people act cheaply meanish n with an intention of jus pitting u down n hurting u n end up making somebody elses lifes sillily difficult ~~ basically for cheap thrills ~~ It makes it so so so v difficult to forgive them! Something I know am not gonna forget it in a hurry ~~ Jus remember what goes around comes around!

But ofcourse this gets linked up to Color Deckors Weeknd-Wrapup... All times are supposed to be linked up there u c :)