It has been a long time since I have not posted anything but there are reasons to it.1 – lack of energy and 2 – lack to sbjects to write.Today I was going my childhood photographs when I saw my Grandma’s snap.Thats when I realised how much I miss her.Of couse she is no more but I always wish she would be a lill longer.Whats so special ?All of us love their grandparents but my G Mom was really special ,a woman of substance,character and love-Someone whom I admire the most in the life.My grandma was born in 1920 to a very affluent family.Her dad was serving in the Police department and had 2 wives ( God how did he manage !!! Cant manage 1 nowadays ).She was the only girl in the house hold and had 7 Brothers.Naturally apple of the eye,so she was given the best of education.She studied English ,Hindi,Tamil,Kannada and Urdu ,along with extra curricular activities as swimming.Whew! On top of it she is a Hindi Visharad ( the highest qualifiying exam as good as a doctorate in a particular language ) Can you believe it ! In 1920’s when female infanticide was ( and is still ) rampant,my grandma was brought up just like her brothers.I was told her she had an entire showcase filled with silver toys to play.Oh my god!!! Wish my dad also gives me 1 silver toy to play now….She was given complete freedom to do what ever she liked.She learnt singing,making dolls,hand weaving cane toys,baskets,chairs phew……and me –don’t know anything except talking…..She lived in a palatial bungalow ( considering the property rates you can term it as a bungalow ) in Chitradurga,Karnataka. This is just the beginning.Her story is nothing less than a hindi masala movie.She fell in love with my grandpa who was studying medicine.He was maternally related to her.Her mom was furious and rejected the proposal outright.G Ma simply walked out of the house saying that she will marry my G pa at any cost.Just imagine walking out of acres and acres of property,money + how can I forget showcase with silver toys.She had the determination that she is going to live happily with my Gpa for the rest of her life…Now starts the sad part.My Gpa got into the Indian railways and as we all know Gov service means getting tranfered to unknown places.They had 4 kids –Will not write the complete names ( am lazy guys pls bear with me ) Shesh,Raghu,Viji,Shar -2 boys and 2 girls.My gmom couldn’t accompany my gpa to all the places.My Gpa was away most of the times.So she single handedly managed all the 4 kids and the household.Guys don’t forget this is in 1940’s.It seems those days kids from railway colonies used to get spoilt very soon.Gambling,smoking,drinking etc used to be very common and quite popular among the kids and adults.My Gmom raised the kids in such a way that not one among them till now has given in to the vices inspite of having such of people aroud them.I would say Hats off to her upbringing !!!We find it “ extremely “ difficult to just raise 1 kid….given with all the possible comforts. She had all the 4 kids finish their education and helped them to settle down in their respective lives.Not that her story has come to the end.My uncle had 2 sons who literally gew up with her coz both ( my uncle and aunt ) were working.So the next comfortable solution is leaving both the kids with my Gmom.That’s wht most of us do nowadays.Our parents fill in our shoes and we …don’t know ….Maybe the week end parents.I was pretty close to her don’t know the reason yet but was the favourite among all the grandchildren.She used to stay with my uncle from Monday to Friday and weekends come to our house.My Gmom was very passionate about traveling and was quite artistic too.In those days railway employees used to get 2+2 travel concession pass.So the entire family used to travel extensively all over India.Infact there is a very interesting incident .Got to mention this one- My Gmom and Gpa visited a place called Sundarakindi which is supposed to be linked to the great epic Ramayana.It is said that the Vanar sena used to live there and that’s where Sri Ram met Hanuman.It is few kilometers away from Lakshyadeep and was a small island.It so happened when they visited the place and returned to Kanyakumari ,they got to know that the entire island got submerged completely.It just simply vanished from the place and there is no evidence of that island today.Oh my god!!! What an experience that would have been.This particular incident intrigues me so much.Is it true and can we believe this?Only time and Discovery channel should throw light upon this..