will always miss u...

u never know what u ve got until u lose it. u never know what u ve been missing until it arrives.

i knew her for ever..ever since i was born, she was around taking care of me. when i was barely a year old itself my mother started dropping me off at her place before she left for work. this lady, must have been in her early 60's then. from then on she took care of me till she passed away when i completed my high school. she was my maternal grandmother.

once i started going to school, i remember her waiting for me with a warm glass of milk at the door at 4 o'clock sharp (that s when i used to return home from school). that milk, as far as i remember, has never been too hot for me to burn my tongue, nor too cold to whine about.

when i started high school, my backpack got heavier as the number of subjects and books and classwork notes and homework notes increased in number (it was considerably heavy even though i almost always forgot to take most of my books to school..i rememebr my teacher shouting at me once in front of the whole class that i am no student of hers and do not deserve to come to that school...all because i forgot some text book that day).as soon as i came back from school and removed my bag, she would be there sitting right beside me rubbing my shoulders adn asking about my day at school.

this frail old lady whom i didnt know i was so much in love with, never missed an opportunity to tell on me to my mother. after a whole day together, we would both rush to my mother to complain about each other once my mother returned from work. her usual complaint would be "she was not at all at home todya. your daughter did not study at all. i dont know how she is going to pass." i ve had major fights with her..fights where i ve screamed at her saying i would never step into her house again and she had retaliated saying that she would break my leg if i ever entered her house (she didnt, thankfully)

she was very cute. she had a hunch back and appeared small. she had an american daughter-in-law, my aunt, with whom she used to have very long conversations whenever my uncle and aunt used to come down to India. the conversations used to be very animated and extremly interesting and our whole family used to love watching those 2 together. i call it interesting for two reasons- one is that my grandmother was hard of hearing, so half the time she never used to understand what was being told to her. the second (and this is the best), she never understood English and my aunt didnt know Tamil. they actually used to talk for long, both of them nodding their heads in intervals without having the slightest clue of what the other person was saying. then suddenly my grandmom would turn to me and ask "what did she say for so long? was it something i should know?" she was the cutest lady anybody could find.

she never worried about any of her grandchildren as they were all well settled or at least performing well in schools. i was the only one she was always worried about. she passed away just 2 days before i got my board exam results. am sure she would have been very happy if she had known that i had done well. at least she would have died in peace.

i miss her a lot..will always miss her