MY FIRST BLOG

This is my first blog. The feeling that anything i write here is so close to the entire world scares me. I wanted to create a blog from a long time but something pulled me back. Ironically, now when I start doing this i am not in good spirits. How insane is it to sit before a set of emotionless articles interconnected with a bunch of wires and scribble arbitrarily just few hours after knowing that someone who loved you the most has passed away.
I dedicate my first blog to this great lady who definitely deserves much more than this.........
She was born in the month of July in 1918 in a remote village in Andhra pradesh(India).India was in the shackles of Great Britain. British rule proved detrimental to the society depriving the rural children from getting a good formal school education. And it is uncommon to send a girl to near by town for any education. So, the immediate option was to lsend a girl away after performing her marraige.So,At the age of 15 she was married to a man,but he was much older than her. Moreover,He was a widower and had a son. But still she was considered lucky because he was a very respectable and a noble Jamindaar.

Her next phase of life was that of a typical housewife . Look after all the needs of the house and household people and “cook”. Yes, cooking was one relentless activity that used to go on because these words of her husband used to ring in her years”Any person who comes to our house must eat satisfactorily and only then will I eat”.....Days passed by..... Soon she was pregnant and gave birth to a girl .May be it was either the lack of awareness or for the want of a boy ,she became pregnant very frequently giving birth to five girls (one boy was born dead) in a row and finally giving birth to two boys.

The long journey laid ahead.Her roles began to multiply in number. As a step mother, as a mother of children of various ages,as a devoted wife and as an active member in the joint family……...extreme hardwork.Not getting carried away by her husband’s extreme generosity, she started looking into the future and realized the need of the hour is to save something for the better future of her children.Little she knew that this thought of hers would sustain the family. The worse was to come soon. Her step son got married ( to lady X,say) andhe started taking over the burden of the family. Unfortunately, all of a sudden he passed away of tuberculosis (reportedly).This is the time around which India just got its Independence and the Judicial system was not yet well established. This made it easy for the lady X and their parents to wage a legal war and snatch all the property that this family possessed......(obviously through unfair ways). But the worse was yet to come. At the age of 52 ,unable to withstand a sudden financial loss, her husband died of a heart attack just before the marriage of their eldest daughter……..

At the age of 34,just loosing her husband and was without a male support to a family with girls aged 16,14,12,8,7 years and boys 2 years and 6 months old ,only a lady of steel nerves and unparalleled courage can survive. In the years to follow it was hard work coupled withmental strength and great managerial skills she came through the difficult times.Some major setbacks she suffered after that…….

• Just when the eldest daughter became old enough to stand on her feet and earn something for the family, the unexpected happened. She suffered from Cholera and soon died.
• Another major incident which shows the empathizing attitude of this lady is to give away her elder son to another woman (who is a close relative to their family) when the latter pleaded her to give her a support in her old age (and thereby carryon their surname)in the form of a son. Just when eldest son of family was coming good, he was sent away only because she knew the fate of a family without a male support. (Although, after that her son remained as close to his mother as before, till this date)

What happened from those trying times till today is history which can be best narrated only by her. But one incident would stand in my memory for ever.When suggested by someone, about sending her twobys to a village nearby to do some agricultural work and thus add some revenue to the family in the process, she, rather than getting tempted for the short term gain, visualised the long-term damage that would occur to her children’s career. Had she agreed to that offer, may be, I would have been a farmer’s son in a remote village, but certainly not leading a comfortable life as I am now.

Yes, I am one of those lucky grandchildren she has had, in fact, the youngest of all . Today at the age of 87,when she embarked on her holy passage to heaven, She should be proud of all the Diaspora of her family living all across the world .

I dedicate this article to this great lady, MY grandmother, who is the most exemplary lady that I have (/would) ever seen(/see).

May her soul rest in peace………..

PUNCHLINE: Women, I always thought, are more powerful than men.