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Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Achamma

I remember listening to my grandmother tell stories about her childhood. She was about 55 at the time, but she was really OLD to me. She recalled vividly the long trips she took EVERYDAY from Kulathoor to Sanghumukham walking barefoot along those rusty railway tracks. On each one of those trips there happened something interesting that she saved in her memory to later serve up to her story hungry grandchildren. Every story she told me and my brother took place somewhere along those pilgrimage she took daily. I always envied the memories she had.

I was talking to her yesterday. We talked for a few minutes. Then she handed the phone to my uncle and asked him “Eda ithu Indira aaNoda ?” (Was that Indira?).
Oh God!
Time is stealing her of her memory. It is barely a year since I met her. She was sharp and running around like a twenty year old. When I left she held me tight in a big hug. I felt the warmth of her big belly, but her tears were warmer. Age is slowly catching up and taking its toll. What an irony for a woman who had a treasure trove of memories etched in her mind.

But achamma is also a very luck woman. She survived small pox; gave birth and raised seven children; gave and received the purest of love from twice as many grand children. She is always surrounded by loved ones. She always lived in her own home, slept in her own bed, ate from her own kitchen, and has an army at her disposal to do for her what ever she can’t do herself. I only wish everybody could be that fortunate.

2 Comments:

Blogger Muhammad Riyaz said...

Earlier hearing "maravi enna anugraham" I never understood how it is a blessing to forget something. For me it was one of the worst things that always haunted me. But now I understand why memory should not be too static. Every step forward is because something in past we forget.

Achamma has finally to go into a world where she cannot see you or anyone else. May be the loss of memory is a preparation. That blesses her with less agony when that moment comes. The moment when time stops itself on one and he enters into a new world.

5:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

But still she had to see rubbish like you asshole.....

3:46 PM  

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