Gratitude

Every year, when we visited our motherland, I felt as if it were another holiday trip. Though I was brought to life there, I felt more attached to the land which brought me up for 15 years. 

Even though I only visited my motherland once every year, that one month flew by in a blink of an eye because my itinerary was packed. Visiting my relatives made up the bulk of it and shopping, sightseeing made up the rest. 

Usually, around 10 days of that one month was set aside for visiting my paternal grandparents. Initially, I felt that those 10 days were pretty boring compared to the rest of my trip since I mostly stayed at home throughout the 10 days. Since my paternal grandparents were quite old, their physique did not allow them to travel within the city or play with us (common ageing issues). Since my other cousins would not visit my grandparents during that time since their holidays fell in a different time period, it was just my grandparents, my parents and my younger brother. Usually my parents would head out for most of the day since they had many official matters and health check ups to tend to. So, it was just me, my brother and my grandparents. At first, I felt that my first few visits were not as interesting. It was just about eating, sleeping, watching tv at times and helping my grandparents do some household chores. Sometimes I would feel tired and would dread doing the chores but soon after I realised how much effort my grandparents had put in for us to ensure that we enjoy our stay there, I regarded it as my duty as a filial granddaughter.  My grandfather would bring us to the supermarket nearby and buy all of our favorite fruits and vegetables though he had difficulties moving about. My grandmother would always greet us with a cheerful smile on our face in the morning though I knew that she had many chores to do that would challenge her physically and mentally throughout the day. For our morning drink, since my brother, my grandfather and I would want different drinks such as coffee,tea and horlicks respectively, she would make all of those drinks separately without ever complaining about it. Moreover, although my grandmother had more health constraints as she had severe knee pain and could not stand for long periods or walk, except for within the house for short distances, she would cook all of our favourite dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, despite having had to stand for really long periods of time. 

Even now, I am absolutely dumbfounded as to how she never ever showed a sign of irritation or exhaustion when she was posed with such mentally and physically taxing tasks. Given her age, I was really shocked how she managed to do all those without losing perfection. She would even want us to stay longer though she knew that it would equate to much more work. Food is really a form of art which serves as a form of expression of the emotions that the chef had. My grandmother would always always always cook really well and would cook whatever we wanted though those dishes required much more effort to cook. She is really the best chef that i know of: a chef who never failed to pour in affection and care into every dish she cooked. Seriously, at the age of 68, it is no joke to cook by oneself, not forgetting the high standard of the food cooked. At the age of 16, i already dread washing the dishes, but my grandmother used to cook all these wonderful dishes and wash all the vessels and our plates too… This meant that she had to strain her knees, which was already a pain in the neck for her, but she did it for us…It was no mean feat!

I used to chip in as much as I could by doing some of the chores such as sweeping the floor, hanging the clothes to reduce the burden on my grandparents as much as I could. However, last december, when I visited India as usual, i came down with a bacterial infection. It was really very painful and difficult to put through with it. However, that meant that not only could i not help my grandparents but that they had to do more,mainly my grandmother, to take care of me. Every night I used to wake up since I felt very nauseous. My grandmother, who used to sleep next to me, would wake up immediately as well despite having been through an exhausting day, to check on my wellbeing. Moreover, she would cook porridge for me, in addition to the dishes she cooked for the rest of my family. Moreover, since I could not eat properly, I would avoid eating and would choose to sleep. However, she would walk to the room and would convince me to eat the porridge so that I would have the strength to handle the bacterium that invaded my body. But, by then the porridge would have turned cold and she would heat it up even though i was fine with eating slightly cold porridge. She would ensure that I took my medicines and would apply the cream on my forehead whenever I had headaches. Though she was old and was already challenged by her health issues and further challenged by the addition of chores, she would never fail to ensure that I was recovering and that we were happy.

After I managed to recover, she cooked all of my favourite dishes and she would usually cook more so that there would be enough to eat for everyone. However, there would always be leftovers since we could not finish and instead of eating the food she cooked for dinner, she would finish up the remaining rice and curry from lunch. But because of this, whe would not cook less the next day: she would always cook more so that everyone can have a hearty meal.

I would always sit by her when she was cooking and exercising and would ask her about her childhood and my father’s childhood ( her early parenthood). She would always think about it and would laugh for a bit and would start talking about them. It was really interesting to hear how she was brought up back then and how she brought up my father, my aunt and my uncle. She would share her life lessons and would share some valuable advice.

These stories and advice are still etched in my mind as these stories and the moments I shared with her for the past few years have become the last… How I wish I had spent more time with her when she was around… Truly, a great person.