The Grand Love

We would all agree that most adorable,harmless and innocent among the human race are the children and the old  people. Our grandparents create a niche in most of our lives and in many cases, they take up a parent’s role in bringing up their grand kids. I am one of them.

With time,no matter how grown up we become, we will still be that small kid she once used to take care of. Holding my little finger and taking me to school during my early school days, attending most of  my parents-teachers meetings. I was a bit embarrassed to walk beside my grand mom and ashamed that everyone’s parents used to come and we were the only odd one out there. My friends  used to ask me “Where are your parents?”.I had no reply. Now I really want to go back and tell them “You will realize it later how lucky I am.”For the record, my grandmother was the authority and she used to take care of most of the decision making that goes around in the house. We used to call her ‘Ma’. She was a strict ‘parent’. So every parents-teachers meeting was the same story. My grand mom thought I was the ‘first bench obedient kid’ and my teacher thought I was the ‘naughtiest, most talkative never do homework but intelligent’ kid. Her disappointment results in my red caned butts back home after the meeting.  She wanted me to be an all rounder. She wanted me to be a Tabla Player but I wanted to be a guitarist. I ended up being a  ’Visharad’  and a national music scholarship holder in Tabla till 10th standard. Then IIT-JEE/AIEEE happened and ruined everything.She wanted me to be a table-tennis player/badminton player but I wanted to be a cricketer. She is the reason I can read and write  and is able to write this blog post right now. I remember when my grandfather used to give me a 5 rupee note every Friday and I ended up having those “Aloo-chats” outside the school gates. And the trend of giving his grandson a bit of money still continues through college days to present working days. The denominations of Rs.5 is increasing and so is the love. Last time I went home, he put a 1000 rupee note inside a handmade envelope with neat handwritten note ”To our Dear grandson Ankan. With blessings, Ma and Koka (grandpa in Assamese).

What I believe is that a Grandparent-Grandchild relation is very sacred. Do not try to break it by hurting them. They are at a very vulnerable stage right now and need us to be with them through thick and thin the same way they were with us when we were vulnerable as kids. All they want from us is a little bit of our time. It will be a grave sin from our part if we cannot even do that much for them. Technology was somewhat easier back in school days with just the land-line to contact each other. Now with more complicated means of communication it is difficult for old people to keep in touch with their dear ones without some assistance. I remember back in my college end semester holidays, Grandma used to tell me and my sister to teach her how to write an SMS and call using her new basic model of Nokia. We used to pass the buck on each other. I tried teaching her many times and she would make the same error. I was an impatient person back then, straight from the college. How can I be wasting time teaching my grand mom how to use the stupid phone when I have to go out to party with friends, chat with my college pals on Facebook.right? Once I got very irritated while teaching her the same stuff and told her rudely “Ma! Why do you have to bother writing an SMS and just tell daddy to connect the call when you have want to talk to me.” She replied “Please don’t get irritated. I wanted to learn just to talk to you and your sister. At this age who else do I have other than you people?” There were tears coming out of her eyes. She didn’t talk to me for the rest of my holidays and when the time came for me to leave home, she called me and handed me an envelope. I opened it in the plane.There was  a 2000 Rupee note inside and as small letter saying “You wanted to buy a watch. I hope this would be enough. With love, Ma. I cried throughout my journey back to college. The next time when I went home, I bought a webcam for the home computer and taught her how to Skype , write email along with her SMS writing. . I hope God forgave me. few days back when I got promoted to a Junior Manager she smsed me “Good morning! My dear Junior Manager Sahab!”. that was the best complete message she could send me along with the others which were a bit incomplete.

Little things you do for them really means a lot to them. I gifted my Koka(granddad) a Casio watch from Flipkart. When he received the delivery, he was very happy. My grandfather has a collection of very costly gold watches gifted by my Aunts and Uncles but he loves to wear my comparatively much cheaper Steel Casio watch and keeps looking at it all the time as my dad told me. He wears it with great pride. After all his little grandson whom he used to give 5 rupees every Friday gifted him.

It took me a lot of time to write this particular post as there were lots of strong emotions attached to it. As I was writing this,there was a knot inside my throat throughout. I wish I can be a great person someday as they wanted me to be and most importantly I hope God is kind enough to let them see that day. This is my humble prayer. And I request anyone who bothered to read this, Please spend some time with your old grandparents. You may be too busy hanging out with your friends now but later when you realize it, it would be too late.

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