My Ajji

My maternal grandmother- my Ajji was one of the first person's I looked upto.

She was one of the first independent women and happiest woman I had ever seen in my entire life. Though of a generation, in which not many women worked, she worked for almost 40 years of her life looking after house hold chores and balancing work. She always said women should strive to attain the best in their lives and she would try to imbibe in all us grandchildren the same values. She had travelled the entire country from North to South and East to West. My grandfather being in the Railways was one of the reasons; she always had great stories to tell of different places in India. She would tell us various mysteries and stories of various temples in India. She had travelled to Nepal and she would talk about the Pashupatishwar temple.She would talk about temples in Gujrat, Rajasthan and their splendor.She would talk about Badrinath Kedarnath.She was never superstitious but she was religious. She knew India's history really well. She would relate to incidences and tell us those pre-independence stories and the days of her childhood in and around Pen,Apta and erstwhile British Bombay.

She was one the first person's to tell me stories about Shivaji and Peshwa. This may sound cliched but the stories were always the best. It was back then that I really started liking the history of India. She had songs for each story and she had them at the tip of her mouth. She had studied upto her matriculation yet she had all the dates of various historic events accurately in her mind. Today having studied so much I won't be able to tell what historic event happened when.
She used to sing to us songs of various events that happened in India.
I specifically remember one song she used to tell us,
" इन्फलुयेंझा झाला मग इन्फलुयेंझा झाला
नर्स असो वा डॉक्टर,
मीस असो वा मीशतर,
या रोगाने पछाडले
या देशाचे मीनीस्टर
या या या लवकर या खाटेवरती पडून रहा
तेही पडले नीरोपयोगी काय करावे बोला ? ...

या या या लवकर या ABC च्या गोळया घ्या
तेही पडले नीरोपयोगी काय करावे बोला? "

This song specifically spoke about the time when Bombay was hit by the Influenza. The song further speaks about how the Government came out with the ABC tablets so on and so forth. One estimate said that 40% of Mumbai's population was hit by the epidemic. In her own family my grandmother's 5 siblings were hit by the flu. My grandmother and her mother were the only one's in the family not to be hit by it. But this song if I had not heard from her, I would never have known that before the H1N1 scare there was a scare that was something even worse when medicine was not that advanced as it is today.

She was the first person to push me to face my fears and sing or talk in front of people. She was the person who always kept telling me to overcome my shyness in front of a lot of people.She always pushed me into every sport and every competition always stressing that education is important but far more important is one's overall development.

As a kid if there was a person who I felt most comfortable with was my Ajji. I travelled with her to Thal in Alibag where my grandfather's ancestral home is a number of times. She would teach me how to find out if it was time to collect the Supari or how the watering of the entire farm or वाडी is done. The first taste of rural India and the great Maratha legacy of forts were introduced to me by my Ajji. She was always curious about things. She would always ask me how mobiles work and how computers work.

Any academic success or otherwise which I gained she was the first to congratulate me and she was the first to one to feel really proud. She would brag to her friends about me. When I left for the US she was the one who told me to make the most of the opportunity and use it for my over all development. When I was in the US I used to write to her. Her letters always had everything in them. There would be advice, there would be wishes there would be encouragement. I would always look forward to receiving her letters. I remember one such letter which she wrote to me as a reply to the Diwali Greeting I had sent. She wrote, " where ever one is, one should celebrate one's own festivals. allow your tongue to taste the delicacies prepared on that day. This according to her gives us the strength and hope to go through the year looking forward to the next year's festivities." I read that letter once again yesterday and I felt a lump in my throat.

The day I decided to leave the US for India, again the first person to wholeheartedly support my
decision was my Ajji. She said you have got good experiences in life you got a good opportunity to see the culture of a different country. Eventually one needs to come back and here you are.
I was so moved by her words then.To not talk about her cooking would be a crime. Every grandchild loves the cooking of the grandmother. Her tilgul and specifically prepared Pickles were out of this world. I was never a person who ate a lot of spicy stuff but her pickles were the best and I would devour them.

Even when I went to see her a week before to meet her, when she was at the hospital, she asked me how I was, and even in so much pain she put her hand on my head to bless me. I felt blessed.
On the 5th she left for the heavenly abode. I am sure where ever she is she will always be looking after me and may she find the most happiness wherever she is.