Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Of grandma's house and treasures left behind..

What do you do when you see this and remember that a more exquisite one existed in your grandma's house? Or when you see brass pans and remember that larger versions of those were actually used to cook in ajji's house on special occasions and they looked as if they were polished everyday. Or when you see London's guard dolls at a friend's house and remember that even finer miniatures of those existed in ajji's house. Or when you see dainty china with gold engravings and remember that tea was served in similar, daintier cups in ajji's house. Or when you see an old Kanjeevaram and remember ajji's saree that she stitched into a langa (pavadai / silk-skirt?) for you when you were six and a salwar-kurta for the older cousin. Or when you remember the big joint family that ajji mane housed, almost breaking at the seams, but managing wonderfully most of the time. Or when you remember the food, the glorious food that was served with a dollop of home-made ghee (flavored with beetle leaves) in one corner of the plate for every meal. Or when you remember the recipe book that ajji sometimes peeked at, even though she did not need any recipe book. Yet she saved that book and thought it was the authority on cooking, just because it was her grand mother's 3rd grade school textbook! What do you do when you know you can only savor these memories but never go back? What do you do then?

9 comments:

  1. Sigh.. memories.. You treasure them and write them down on your blog.

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  2. AJ, savour them and build memories for your grandkids to reminisce upon :)

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  3. Live life to the fullest like Ajji and on the way, make your own memories!

    Below is a snippet from Scout's blog, circa 2035:
    Best birthday: The one I spent on the airplane
    Best Valentine's day: The one with pink & white pasta. And hearty to boot!

    :P

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  4. Cherish the memories and continue making new ones for posterity :) btw, I have that very same piece in the link above in my house!

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  5. You know what I do ... I call up ajji immediately and talk to her ... those glorious memories come rushing once in a while and it breaks my heart to see my once strong ajji who enjoyed / took care of an extended family of over 15 people is now all alone living by herself !!

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  6. Sraikh: Sigh!
    MFT: My grandkids.. ? Lot of foresight there. :)
    TPL: Aww! Thanks for those snippets from 2035. :)
    Sands: I have been eyeing that one at Worldmarket too.
    CA: I did that! And she said my mom has the recipe book / text book. So yay!

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  7. You pass the memories down to the lil ones. These days, story time at nights involve one main character.. "ME" and my life and the fun I had growing up. The kids relate to every odd ball character I mention now. So much fun! :)

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  8. Guddi: That's a neat idea (for blogposts as well) :)

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  9. Blog about it all and spread the smiles..

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