My Grandmother - Aaji

There is one corner of my heart that got vacant after I lost my Aaji but it is still occupied with lots of memories and good times that we all spent with her. 

Who says that there is a generation gap with our grandparents? No I never felt that. In fact we always need a good friend in our family in our teenage time besides our parents and siblings, and my Aaji was more a friend than a grandparent. 

Aaji always had time to listen to me, give her views and opinions. She would Praise us wholeheartedly when we did something good or achieved good, like for getting good marks and rank in school etc.

 Elderly people always have a vision and understanding. They are wise enough to get the knowledge of even unsaid things because they are full of life's experiences. 

Though my Aaji was not very educated because during their childhood times the basic schooling was enough as it was an era of early marriages. 

My Aaji must have got married at the age of 14 or so, but with the times she learnt a lot and kept herself getting educated by learning new things and by keeping updated with current hppenings in society, politics, nation and world. 

Aaji is someone that you can trust and we can share our secrets with her like, our first crush or a liking for a colleague in first job after graduation. We knew that this secret will remain secret with her and she will understand this.

  My Grandparents were staying in our hometown in Maharashtra in a big house called " wada" where they had 7- 8 tenants also staying over there. All very helpful and used to give respect to my grandparents as owner.

I was not fortunate enough to see my grandfather, who was tall, self-made and very hard working person . BUt after my grandfather my Aaji still stayed in that house and managed everything independtly but ofcourse because of lovely tenants and neighbours. We used to go and stay there with Aaji during vacations time. 

 A memorable time of childhood spent . Aaji was a very good cook. She used to make very delicious food and new varieties of food. Going out in market with Aaji was a fun time. 

There was one temple of Lord Rama near to our house and after dinner we used to go with Aaji in that temple to listen to ' Katha '. All those elderly ladies would make wick from cotton for Diyas, make a thin thread from cotton for wick, also some would cut vegetables etc. simultaneously while listening to Ram Katha and all this they would do silently. Some elderly ladies used to whisper and talk about their daughter-in-laws with an old lady sitting next to them. going to temple was like a gathering point for ladies and especially old ladies and mother-in-laws .

My Aaji had one tenant of her age and so was like her friend. once they both decided to go to watch a movie named " Gopi ". These innocent old ladies thought that this movie is on lord Krishna as the name suggests, even the person at ticket window must have thought why these elderly ladies have come to watch a movie, but he never clarified. This incident became a laughing incident for all of us including our Aaji. 

After few years when Aaji became quite old and started finding difficulty in doing her work like marketing of household things etc. so my father and uncle decided to bring her to our house to stay with us. 

Aaji still used to cook food for us and do small things to help her daughter - in - laws that is my mother and my aunty. She was such loving and caring for all of us. 

Sitting for sometime with Aaji was like so relaxing as she would solve all our tensions. We could share our smallest problem with her. She would never scold on us for any mistake but would make us understand the good and right things we should do. the evening we all children used to sit around her and it was great time because of her in that joint family. grandmother binds us together as family. Truly it was like a  blessing to have Aaji staying with us. 

My Aaji was so curious to know about all that we all had to share with her as we all knew that she is intelligent enough to understand all new advancements and new inventions and happenings. 

Aaji taught us to manage our life in what is available to us and how to be happy and make others happy and keep smiling. How many years have passed after she went doesn't matter, all the good memories, learnings and her wisdom is all still with us to guide us in our life and in our future.