GRANDMA TALES: THREE

Today is my grandma’s birthday, and we are celebrating it as usual. Dad tells me that grandma is seventy-eight years old. I ask him to tell us more about Grandma when she was young. She was tall, fair and beautiful, he says. My grandpa was tall too, but he was a bit fat and dark. Grandma was always up to some prank or the other when she was young.

As a child, she was always into trouble and her parents, our great grandparents were always worried about her. Dad told us that one day, grandma, as a child of seven-year or so, locked herself up in one of the closets in her house. No one noticed her thinking that she would be playing somewhere. The house itself was large with twenty rooms, a huge backyard and a large space in the front. As the day settled down tonight, my great-grandma started searching for grandma and could not find her. Soon, the entire household was out, searching for grandma. My great-grandpa was an engineer and when he returned from work, he found great-grandma crying. My great-grandpa thought that my grandma must have gone out of the house to some friend’s house. Soon, all friends were contacted but still, my grandma was nowhere to be found.

The police were informed about the missing girl. A good crowd of friends and well-wishers had gathered at the house and everyone was discussing what could have happened. There were reports of wild animals roaming around in the village and some feared that the child could have been taken away by some tiger. Some said that there were gangs of bad people, gypsies, who took away small children. My great-grandma was hysterical.

Just then, my grandma crawled out of the closet where she was hiding and curiously walked towards the crowd of people gathered at her residence. Someone spotted her and cried out to my grandma. All hell broke loose and soon grandma was being carried away by grandpa and put to bed. The doctor was called to check her up. No one was asking her where she was and how she returned. Grandma was already in her prayer room, praying to God in relief.

Much later, when the commotion died down and people dispersed, grandpa asked her if she was all right. It was then that grandma told him where she was and how she had hidden. It seems she got a good scolding, but grandma would not allow grandpa to slap her.

That is my grandma. Today is her birthday and as usual, she is going to cook special food for us. Of course, she cannot do it alone, she is blind, and so my mom, my aunt and others are helping her.

I must tell you grandma is a great cook. When she does the cooking, on her birthday, she will not allow anyone to put anything without her permission. Salt and spices must be passed on to her and the quantity to be added will be as she directs.

We all had a wonderful lunch she cooked. Soon, she retired to her room, tired of all the activity around her. Waiting for the moment, we kids barged in. Pratima and I were joined by our five cousins and we all scrambled for a place close to grandma. The other elders shouted at us to leave her alone so that she can rest. But we all knew that grandma was not the resting type, she loved being walked all over by children. We let her lie down on the bed and took our positions around her. Grandma knew this situation well. She knew that we would soon be pestering her for a story. But before she did that she would throw some tantrums. She was tired, she told us. Her legs were aching. That was a signal for us to grab her legs and press them. My cousins took charge. She was thirsty, she said. Two kids ran into the kitchen to fetch water. She was feeling warm and sweaty. The air-conditioned was switched on and cold towels were brought out to cool her down. Pratima was already massaging her head. All this went on for half an hour or so. It was now time for grandma’s story.

“Grandma, dad told me about what you did as a child. How you hid in a closet and had people searching for you all over the city. He also told us how people thought you were eaten up by a tiger or something.”

“What? How dare your father spoil my reputation like this? Eaten up by a tiger? Haha; no tiger dare touch a girl who was eaten up once by a crocodile and came out unscathed.”

Crocodile? We were all amazed. No one told us about grandma being eaten up by a crocodile ever. All of us were now breathing down on grandma who lay with her eyes closed.

“Do you mean to say grandma that a crocodile ate you and you did not die?” one of my cousins was shaking her legs to wake her up. Of course, we all knew she was not sleeping.

“Now, Now, I shouldn’t be telling you kids about this. Actually, I never told about this to my children, your father and mother.” We could not allow her to get away from this and we shook her vigorously.

“OK. Promise me that you will disappear from here once you hear the story.” The promise was solemnly made by all of us and she took a deep breath, opened her eyes and sighed.

“It was a bad day for me. I had gone to the river to bathe. I was about ten or twelve at that time, and we were allowed by our parents to bathe in the river once a while. Most girls in the village knew how to swim and so there was no danger of drowning. The river itself was not too deep. You know, it was like a picnic for us girls. We gathered our clothes that day, about ten of us, and packed our food in a big basket. We were all chattering excitedly, and wondering what it would be like to bathe in a sea. Do you know the difference between a river and a sea?”

Here she goes. Grandma can never tell a story straight. She could have made a good teacher if she had been educated. Usually, Pratima would have pounced on the question, but today, we had better candidates for the question. 

“Many rivers make the sea.” One of my bright cousins answered proudly.

“That is a good answer, but it does not answer my question. You have to tell me the difference very specifically and clearly.”

“The water in the sea is salty. River water is sweet.” Pratima got her chance.

“That was Pratima, wasn’t it? Said, Grandma. She could identify a person from the voice, among other things.

“There are waves in the sea, but rivers do not have waves.”

“Good observation, Rahul.”

“Grandma” I cried out in frustration. “This is not a classroom and you are not our teacher! You are our Grandma and you were telling us about how you got to be eaten up by a crocodile.”

“Well, Yes, I am not your teacher and I can’t teach you because I never taught myself. But your grandpa taught me many things and he was the one who kept asking questions, I learnt that from him. To get on with the story, we girls all went to the river that day to bathe. Bathing in a river is quite unlike bathing in your bathroom. It’s much more exciting, and I hope someday your parents will take to the river to bathe, that is if there are any clean rivers left. 

We changed our clothing at the river bank and then dived into the waters. When you hit the waters your whole body sizzles, like hot iron dipped in cold waters. It’s so very refreshing. Soon, we were all friends with the water again and were playing all sorts of games. All of a sudden, I fainted and started sinking in the water. I don’t know what happened but my friends grabbed me and took me ashore. It was a momentary blackout, and sure enough, I was feeling fine in ten minutes and in the waters again.

Now, there hasn’t been any history of this river being infested with crocodiles. There were fish, but no crocodile. None of us had ever seen a live crocodile before. We had heard about crocodiles in stories but never seen one. The first sighting of the crocodile was by a friend of mine, who was the timidest of us all. In fact, she did not know it was a crocodile. She had seen a big log, like the trunk of a great big tree, floating down the river away from us. We all thought nothing of it as it disappeared underwater. But it came up again, and this time quite near to us. We still did not know it was a crocodile. It was when it actually came upon us that we saw it was no tree trunk. The body was black and scaled. Its head was underwater, so we could not quite make up our minds. The head came up in full view when it reached the first girl. The crocodile showed itself up in all its glory. And we were all petrified.”

“What Happened? What did you do?” All of us shouted in unison.

“What do you mean what did I do? What do you do when you are face to face with a huge crocodile? Pet it? Play with it? No. You panic and run. We all did just that. We swam furiously in all directions away from the crocodile. All of us managed to scramble to the shore, except Vishi. Vishi, the timid girl. She could not make it ashore. She was flaying her arms and legs but getting it all wrong. The crocodile was after her and she was still in the middle of the river, swimming straight on. We shouted at her to head for the river bank but she would not listen. She was too frightened to listen to anyone. She would look back once in a while and then swim furiously. I must say she swam well. It would take some time for the crocodile to catch up with her at the rate she swam...”

My Grandma paused. But we dare not ask her what happened.

She waited for us, but only the silence of the room greeted her. Finally, she broke the silence.

“My head was racing with possibilities. I wanted to save Vishi but was afraid of the crocodile. It was a massive beast. Must be as long as the hall in our house, head to tail. There was no way one could escape, once it took you in its clutches. I had heard from my mother that crocodiles swallow you up first and then eat at its leisure. Vishi would be swallowed right in front of our eyes and we can do nothing to save her. A few of the girls were throwing stones at the crocodile to distract it and frighten it away. But none of the stones could reach or hit the crocodile.

You know something kids. All of us are basically cowards. But the moment you face danger, something happens to you. Courage is something which comes to you at the most unexpected moment. Like it did to me. At that hour of danger, when we all stood and watched our dear fried about to be swallowed by a crocodile, I suddenly jumped into the river, without a warning. The girls shouted at me, but I was already swimming towards the crocodile. Soon I was between Vishi and the crocodile, and still swimming. I had no plan to do anything great, I just kept swimming. Soon enough, I could see the crocodile before me, its big mean eyes glaring at me. I wish none of you come face to face with a crocodile or any beast, but if you do, do not stare at it. That is exactly what I was doing, staring at the crocodile. My heart stopped beating as it opened its mouth. It was a huge cave and the teeth were large and sharp enough to tear you apart in a moment. I swam on, drawn by the magnificent beast, and even as I swam into the cave of a mouth, I could not help wondering what its stomach would be like.”

Just then, my aunt came in. She had this newborn, six-month-old daughter of hers in her arms. She breezed in to enquire whether any of us were hungry and wanted something to eat. The baby, as if she knew grandma for ages, jumped onto the bed and scrambled over grandma. Grandma grabbed the baby and squeezed it to her lovingly. None of us wanted to eat, but we were hungry. Soon the eatables arrived in large plates and the story was momentarily forgotten. All of us were grabbing whatever we could and stuffing our mouths with it.

The snacks over, we returned to the story. Grandma had finished her tea by then, and the baby was in her lap, trying to grab her hair, or what was left of it.

“So that was it. I was inside the crocodile and the world shut out for me when it closed its mouth.”

“How the hell did you manage to get out? Who helped you? Don’t tell us you came out all on your own.”

“No. I could not have. Pratima, had it not been for your grandpa, I would not have lived to tell you the story. As I learnt later, the crocodile swam away with me inside. The girls rushed home to inform the elders. The elders rushed to the river to locate and capture the crocodile. They were unable to sight the crocodile and it was when they were animatedly discussing what else to do that this strapping young lad walked up to them with a suggestion. He proposed that we take the fastest vehicle in the village and rush to the dam. The crocodile could not cross the dam unless the gates were open. And the gates would be opened in another hour or so. The dam was at a distance and it would take an hour to reach it unless we could do better.

“Do you know what a dam is?” Quiz time again. This time, none of us knew what a dam was. 

“A dam, my dear children, is built across a river to stop the water from flowing on. A dam helps us to control a river, taking water when wanted and stopping when not required. That is what a dam is. It has gates which are closed and opened at regular intervals. You see, if the dam gates are closed, nothing can pass beyond it, even the mighty crocodile.

My father, your great grandfather, immediately took his car and along with the young lad and a few other friends raced down to the dam. They saw the crocodile there, but how to trap it? The authorities, the government people, did not have anything to catch a crocodile, for there had not been any crocodile in these waters in the past. No one seemed to know what to do. Again, the young lad came up with an idea, which was quite unusual. He requested the authorities to call a veterinary doctor, you know a doctor who looks after animals. He asked the doctor if he had a big syringe, the one with which injections are given. Do you see what the boy was planning to do? He was planning to give the crocodile a large dose of sleeping medicine with a large injection. It was quite impossible to inject a crocodile for its skin is so hard, no needle can get into it. But that was the only solution at that time one could think of. The authorities were trying to arrange for guns to be brought so that the crocodile can be shot and killed, but those were days when people did not have guns with them. The local police too did not have guns that can shoot and kill a crocodile.

To cut a long story short, the youngster managed to fill up a large dose of sleeping medicine. He swam to the crocodile and tried to make it open its mouth. He told the elders that unless the medicine was injected in a tender part of the crocodile, it would not work. He had made a very strong dose, knowing that the crocodile would not go to sleep if the dosage was small or weak. 

My father told me later, how the young boy braved death and fought to open the mouth of the crocodile. Shots were fired at the crocodile with the small guns the local police had with them. It did no harm to the crocodile but managed to draw its attention to the boy. Angry at being shot at, it opened its mouth to swallow the boy. He had already entered its mouth and plunged the needle into the crocodile. The mouth of the crocodile shut with great force and the lad was inside the crocodile too.

Half an hour later, the unconscious crocodile was dragged out of the water by villagers. They were at first too afraid to go near it but elders convinced them it would remain asleep.

It is said that it took six doctors, six hours, to cut open the crocodile and pull us both out. We were both unconscious, having been affected by the medicine inside the crocodile. The crocodile was stitched up again and in a few days healed up enough to be taken away to a place of safety.

We survived me and the boy. No one would believe such a thing could happen, but believe me, had it not been for the smart boy, I would have died that day. The boy later told me he was studying to become a doctor. My father decided he would be my husband when I became marriageable.” 

“Grandpa saved you? We are so proud you are our grandma and you married such a brave and intelligent man.”

“So are we. Now, leave Grandma alone and let her have some rest.”

I turned around and saw that all the elders had grouped in the room and had been listening to Grandma’s story.

Grandma smiled. “And I am so proud to have sons, daughters and grandchildren like you.”