I don’t know how but today the thoughts of my maternal grandparent's old house flickered in my mind....the flicker soon became a peaceful thought...then a flow of memories, every detail lingered in my mind.
My maternal grandparent’s house was in Andheri, Mumbai …in a society of a couple of buildings. It was very special to me because I had never lived in a building ever in my life as a child. The house had pretty big rooms and balcony full of plants which my mama had lovingly maintained! My mother was the eldest of the siblings, so I and my brother were pampered to the core being the first grandchildren! My mama and maushi were always thrilled by our presence, and kept inviting us all the time. I really admire their willingness to play with us even when we were hardly 6 or 7 years old. They had their college and office later, but still they never got bored of us...they never felt that we were troubling them. They used to become 7 years old too...just to have fun with us! We have played some weirdest and craziest games with mama, which of course were invented by him, our laughter would not stop even though our eyes were full of tears and our stomach muscles ached! My granny always and I mean always used to make our favourite breakfast, and we all used to sit together in the living room on the floor and have it. I remember the brown kettle which contained tea for everyone to have twice. Then there used to be stories, magic tricks, antakshari, drawings, paintings, movies....the list will go on! I never remember sitting idle in hat house!
Some details of the house are so much carved in my brain that I will never forget them. The sound of the ceiling fan in the silence of the night, the huge black colour drums in the passage for storing water, the old stone “ragda and varvanta”, the painting of five horses done by my grandfather, the walls hand painted by my mama, the radio played every morning, the water tank right opposite the building with an iron ladder, the bhel puri wala in the evening and the idliwala on his bicycle with that peculiar horn in the morning, the friendly marwari and gujurathi neighbours....everything was special to me more because it was unlike my own house in thane.....Thane was significantly different from Andheri back in those days..
This post is dedicated to that ever exceptional house and my loving family in that house which made my childhood memories truly memorable!
