As a seven year old girl, I was overjoyed with the news of your birth. There was nothing special than that. The memory is so fresh in my mind. My mom told us we will go to leelammas house during quarterly holidays to see you. I was impatiently waiting for that moment. You understood my feeling so well even at that time, hee hee you made us come rushing to you thanks to Skylab episode. We rushed to Chennai ,so we can be together as a family even if something bad happened due to Skylab. So we called you a Skylab baby.
When I saw you for the first time, a special bond was formed right then, right there. You had a shiny glass head (little or no hair unlike most girl babies in our family) with big eyes. Now when I see you drying your long beautiful hair only that glass head comes to my mind. I begged chitha to put you down on my lap. She did courageously after all I am her first love right? I kept caressing your soft, hairless head for a long time. That was the best week of my life spending every minute with you.
Even the sheer thought of Chitha and you coming back to our town thrilled me. You were the soft girl that everybody adored. When I see the softness in NR, I remember you in him. I fed you(your evening snack milk bikis whenever chitha allowed me), I sang to you and entertained you. I used to run to your house during my lunch breaks just to get a glimpse of you. Thank god , Chitha and Chithappa lived closer to my school.
I remember the morning breeze, the songs from Murugan temple on our way to central bus stand with so much of excitement in our heart to meet and greet you in the wee hours of the morning. We got the news that you started walking when you were Chennai for a short family visit with Chitha. I and S akka did not get a wink of sleep the previous night. We were so excited to see you. So we got up early around 4.00am took bath and ventured alone bringing Kamala along with us (hope you remember our neighbor) to central bus stand. I have no idea why my mom allowed us , a thirteen and 8 year old girls accompanied by their 12 year old friend to go alone. Though it’s scary to think of it now, it reminds me of the good old days where you let your kids go every where freely without fear unlike now. And we were used to going to school by ourselves so we went happily. We scanned every passenger getting down from Chennai bus for more than an hour and we did not see you or Chitha getting down from any of the bus. Chitha and Chithappa decided to get down somewhere else but that long walk back home without you was history. We were so sad we didn’t even talk to each other. We returned home with a heavy heart and there you were taking your baby steps on our dining table. You tiny feet adorned with kolusu and the sound it made still bring such joy to my heart. Not even NR’s first steps excited me like that.
Then you became my shadow following me everywhere like a little puppy. You were a ribbon monster. You stayed with us during weekends. Every Monday we will be searching frantically for the all the black ribbons to wear it to school required by school rules but with vain. Kamala always came to our rescue and we ended up borrowing her black ribbons to school. You owe a big time to Kamala : ). Following Tuesday or Wednesday we will discover all our black ribbons either tied to towel hidden under the bed or in some random hand bags (you used towel as your false hair and tied plaits using black ribbons and called it your “ chathai (aka Jadai ) or ribbon were tied around books as gift wrappers. I lost my stamp album for almost 6 or seven months and found it with couple of my black ribbon tied to it under pile of books. I still wonder how you managed to hide it there under a heavy stack of books collecting dust. I really wished we had taken a photo of you in your infamous “Chathai” or your Buddha bikshu (monk) costume aka beach towel costume. We forgot to take a second set of clothes for you during our Marina beach visit and you came home with that costume in the city bus. I love our family photo with your sweet diana cut hair style ( you were in 4th or 5th grade) and I was wearing a silk saree for the first time .
I am happy that you are the same old loving and affectionate little sister with whom I can share anything and everything. You were my rock during my courtship days . I couldn’t have asked for a best friend like you. Small thoughtful stuff you did for me when I was so scared of unknowns at that time. You made me feel relaxed and happy like playing our fav song in the tape recorder whenever you came to our home from school.
CB did everything under his sleeve to convince our family which meant taking tuitions for you and S bro so he can come and meet you guys everyday. You and S bro started calling him “Master” and continues to call him so even after 19 years. He became your best big brother too.
You have a special place in our heart and now very special place in NR’s heart. You rightly call him your son and get so angry at me even if I complain about him a bit. I am at peace knowing that my sister is there to love my son more than me. I felt so happy yesterday, when I you said that you waited so many years to receive a card from your niece ornephew and how grateful we should be for having NR in our lives. I am happy that he brings such joy in your heart like you did for me.
The special prayer from CB’s household is to send a thoughtful, simple, loving person as your partner who is going to respect, love and cherish you like we do. I am praying to god everyday to send that special guy to our family soon. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dream of.
Happy birthday kuttima . Hope this year makes your entire dream come true. Hugs and sweet kisses from us all.
Love you
C akka.
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