Daastan [#MissionDesi]

Chapter 1

5yrs back: It was the 24th of June. Mom, my elder sister, her husband, their 8 year old daughter and I were traveling to Kerala. Edavappathi, the season as per Malayalam calendar was there to welcome us in Allepey.
My grandmother had called saying she was in the last days of her life and wanted to meet all the relatives one last time.

I hadn't been to Kerala in a long time. Caught up in the fun of teenage years and then the responsibilities of adult life, the thought of visiting my grandmother never crossed my mind. I vaguely remembered the days when I visited her as a child on numerous occasions. Rolling down the window, I breathed in the fragrance of all good things and carefree days I had left here as a kid. Beside me, my niece sat riveted to the scenes unfolding in front of her. "Hiya, don't stick your hand out of the window!" admonished her mom. With that, she sat sulking in the corner.

We reached granny's place. It was a quaint house but warm and inviting. Different aromas of spices wafted straight to our hungry stomachs.

After grandfather died, she stayed back refusing to leave her home to visit any of her six daughters or three sons. She had a help at hand, Padhma and a boy who did her grocery shopping and fixed what needed fixing around. Besides, people from village would stop by every now and then to provide her with juicy details of the going ons in the village. Muthassi (grandmother in Malayalam), my father's mother, used to be a jolly good woman, kind at heart. Grandfather and she helped people who asked for their help. But after grandfather's death, I expected things to change around here, expected her to change.

Houses in villages are open to visitors. We went inside. Everything was quiet. Her helper, Padhma was passing by. She stopped and welcomed us inside. She went inside to inform Muthassi of our arrival and to fetch glasses of water for us. We looked around, taking in the sights, the familiar feeling of being home. I expected Padhma to appear holding an old and frail looking woman or worst to summon us inside to see a bedridden granny. But the sight caught us by surprise, or rather just me. Rest of them were giggling and laughing at disbelief that was clear on my face.

I touched granny's feet followed by the rest of them still breaking out into giggles. My grandmother looked not a year older than seventy. Her skin smooth and flawless as I had always remembered her except for the wrinkles folding her skin on her hands and her feet. The skin around her eyes looked like someone had crumpled a piece of paper and then tried to smooth it out. Her hair in a bun, she looked warmly at me. Her eyes still held a glint of humour in them.

"But you said on the phone..." I trailed off.

"What?" She looked at me sternly and continued, "You were expecting me to die any minute now, didn't you? You really think I'm that old? Listen to me boy, I still have many more years ahead of me till I play with my grandchildren, your children."

I scratched my head, hiding the blush colouring my cheeks. All of them laughed at that and I excused myself out of the house on the pretext of making an urgent work call. My brother in law, Vinayak, trailed behind me, his daughter in tow.

"Hey let's go, see the beauty of kerala while we still have spare time at our hand," Vinayak said.

What did he mean spare time? We had all the time in the world to explore Kerala. Weren't we here for entire one week?

"Uncle come fast! I don't want to miss anything!" said Hiya, excitement bubbling in her, dragging me by the hand.