Stark are Life's Contrasts !

I'd in my earlier post mentioned that my trip to Bombay was very taxing to my mind. The reason was that I experienced two stark contrasts during my trip. The one was elation that my sister was getting married the other was despair that I cannot do anything for my ailing granny.

My sister what can I say about her. She's gone through lots and faced lots of strife in her very small life till now. There was a point in time when something had happened and I'd stopped talking to her. I didn't speak to her for 3 days - not even glanced at her. She was crying endlessly. And finally at mom's insistence, I relented and started talking to her.

It was not until much later that I had become very good friends with her. I used to advise her on her career and her job. She gave GRE and I dropped her off at Prometric at Andheri and waited for her for 3 hours till she came out. When she went to collect the appointment letter of her first job, I'd taken her to the place and was waiting downstairs anxiously for her to come down and update me about her appointment. And when she was quitting, I even advised her about how to draft her resignation letter.

The earliest memory I have of her is when I was about 09-10 and she was 4-5, somebody in my school bus had threatened me and I was crying. My sister she saw this and hit that guy hard with her chappals and dragged me away from him and brought me home.

I remember this only vaguely but my mom remembers it very properly and still recounts it to me whenever my sister and I have a fight or sometimes even whenever we are together. I cant believe that she's become so old that she's gotten married. Her hubby's a very very nice guy. He cares about her a lot and likes her a lot. She's also a very strong woman and during her marriage, she didnt shed a single tear. (Neither did my mom for that matter!!) Brave ladies both of them.

On one side there was joy and happiness about my sister getting married, on the other hand there was my granny whose health was failing and going miserable day by day. She didn't even recognize me. The first statement she made was - "Who are you?? Have you come to see me?? So nice of you."

I was so touched, so moved by her talk that I almost had tears in my eyes. I had never seen her so weak, so disoriented, so sad. Her health first started going bad after her hip joint replacement surgery. During her recovery after the surgery, somehow there was an electrolytic imbalance in her blood and the sodium level went extremely low. This caused amnesia and she was able to remember only very old memories and had no knowledge of the recent.

The earliest memory I have of my granny was how she used to catch my hand and make me write my school homework so that they were completed. In my early days in school, there used to be a copy-writing book, which was used to make you practice running handwriting. My granny used to sit with me each day and make me finish my homework by catching my hand and making me practice my running handwriting.

Life presents such stark contrasts and to be honest the two weeks I was home, I didnt know whether to dance and be merry because it was my sister's wedding or whether to be sullen and brood over my Granny's health.

Just hoping and praying that everything becomes alright.

To Heaven and Back !

Yes thats the perfect way to describe my trip home. It was very short, very sweet, very busy, very hectic and also very cheezy that I cant even imagine! Between all of that, there was my sister's marriage and my visit to see my frailing, ailing granny. It was so taxing to the mind - the whole of two weeks!

Whatever I had thought I should get done during my trip, was done. Except for a few stuff related to office work. I knew I had very very little time so I indulged in all possible food endeavours. And mostly everything LOADED with cheese.

Here's a list of it -

1. Started off with Mom's awesome Sambar-Rice-with-Ghee-papad-and-Okra(Lady's Finger). Followed by mom's awesome Tea.

2. Then I had Cheese Pav-Bhaji at Shiv Sagar at Juhu.

3. Samosa, Kachori, Bhel-Puri, Sev-Puri at Tewari's in JVPD.

4. Tomato soup with bread crumbs, Cheese pav bhaji, Masala Papad, Punjabi Vegetable, Butter Naan, Daal Tadka at Sapna in Malad.

5. Crispy vegetable, Masala Papad, Cheese Naan, Subzi at Sheetal Arch in Bandra.

6. Cheese Pizza (the roadside-style), Vegetable Cheese Frankie at Worli

7. Mom's home-made Pongal, coconut rice, curd rice, mango pickle and deep fried suran curry.

8. And huge amounts of food during my sister's wedding.

The only food item that I didnt have is Vada-Pav. To be honest, I completely forgot about it. :-)

Sister's marriage was mind-blowing. Darling sister was looking absolutely angelic (if there's such a word) on the marriage day. I just cant believe that she's married now! Time flies so fast. More on the marriage and other stuff later!

It felt absolutely awesome to drive my car again after a gap of almost 10 months. And at the same time, I noticed that the traffic in Bombay had become absolutely pathetic in the last year and a half or so. There are insane traffic jams strewn everywhere along the length and breadth of Bombay roads! The whole highway seems like its a parking lot during peak hours. The travel time by road has I would say atleast doubled (if not tripled) because of the jams!

It felt unbelievable to meet up friends of 13 years! Friends whom I've known since my engineering days. Friends who've always been with me through thick and thin and not knowing when we can meet-up again!

And finally, it felt great to be amongst family and friends. Felt great to know that there are people in the world who care for me a lot and about whom I care a lot. Felt great to be home albeit for a very short time.

Felt great to be in Heaven!