Craning my neck, I look back to my earliest days
Was it that long ago ?
I remember you making me stand on the sofa
On my third birthday I like to think
Me in a white dress with blue polka dots
You in white as ever
I had questions
So many of them
Why white I used to ask you
And you explained – in your unwavering calm voice
That your husband died and you need to live that way
And I just couldn’t fathom why someone so young and strong had to do it all alone
I used to call you the body of our family tree
And you’d laugh
Quoting me fondly, years later to anyone who would listen
You’d also talk about some poem I sang on the go someday
About a little birdie on the window pane
You were proud
I could not tell why but I wished I could do it again
My summers were with you – always
We’d play while you would do all these chores throughout the day
And you just let us be
Roll on the grass
Get lost in the fields
You knew we’d be home when hungry
The best thing though – you took part in every little thing we did
The games and the dances in front of the TV
And all these years
I know I loved you and loved bringing you up in conversations
More than you knew
I constantly talked about everything you do
Was it that long ago ?
I remember you making me stand on the sofa
On my third birthday I like to think
Me in a white dress with blue polka dots
You in white as ever
I had questions
So many of them
Why white I used to ask you
And you explained – in your unwavering calm voice
That your husband died and you need to live that way
And I just couldn’t fathom why someone so young and strong had to do it all alone
I used to call you the body of our family tree
And you’d laugh
Quoting me fondly, years later to anyone who would listen
You’d also talk about some poem I sang on the go someday
About a little birdie on the window pane
You were proud
I could not tell why but I wished I could do it again
My summers were with you – always
We’d play while you would do all these chores throughout the day
And you just let us be
Roll on the grass
Get lost in the fields
You knew we’d be home when hungry
The best thing though – you took part in every little thing we did
The games and the dances in front of the TV
And all these years
I know I loved you and loved bringing you up in conversations
More than you knew
I constantly talked about everything you do
I’ll never have enough words but here’s a little thank you
For listening to random music with me
Watching ridiculous shows with me
For coming to school on result day when you didn’t have to and speaking to my teacher anyway
For calling out my fake toothaches when all I wanted was ice cream
For showing up on every birthday
For making the only dal I’d ever eat, I loved everything you made
For loving my dog like the baby she was
For being okay with all food we wanted to have – old people can be picky eaters, you never were
And on that note, for eating and smiling at my questionable cooking
For telling me all about your childhood
For the afternoons we sat
And tried to figure out how old you really were
For the mornings you force fed home grown mangoes
And nights where we would fight to sleep near you because you were the warmest coziest human ever
Waking you up every time we had to pee
For listening to random music with me
Watching ridiculous shows with me
For coming to school on result day when you didn’t have to and speaking to my teacher anyway
For calling out my fake toothaches when all I wanted was ice cream
For showing up on every birthday
For making the only dal I’d ever eat, I loved everything you made
For loving my dog like the baby she was
For being okay with all food we wanted to have – old people can be picky eaters, you never were
And on that note, for eating and smiling at my questionable cooking
For telling me all about your childhood
For the afternoons we sat
And tried to figure out how old you really were
For the mornings you force fed home grown mangoes
And nights where we would fight to sleep near you because you were the warmest coziest human ever
Waking you up every time we had to pee
All those nights when we were sick
And the palm reading, we should have stopped already
Thank you
For asking me about what I was reading
And what is the next thing I will study
I haven’t met a more curious woman
I vaguely remember you asking me about the masters degree
What’s the difference between all of them and what do they mean
I was amazed
For asking me about what I was reading
And what is the next thing I will study
I haven’t met a more curious woman
I vaguely remember you asking me about the masters degree
What’s the difference between all of them and what do they mean
I was amazed
I had the best grandmother you see
So thank you
For telling me it’s okay to laugh even when the worst has happened and things aren’t going my way
For showing me that we can build our life from scratch
For being there, even when I did not know I needed someone around
And for making me believe that no matter what, I’ll get through.
So thank you
For telling me it’s okay to laugh even when the worst has happened and things aren’t going my way
For showing me that we can build our life from scratch
For being there, even when I did not know I needed someone around
And for making me believe that no matter what, I’ll get through.
