The peppermint jar

Everyone of us have childhood and memories associated with those times. Some of the memories may be very good and valuable while few memories will be ok if we forget or erase from our mind and heart. Lucky few may have lots of good memories only while unlucky few may have more bad memories, this ofcourse is fate. I have had a lot of discussions with my grandparents being the eldest grandchild I had the opportunity to do so. These discussions might have influenced my thought process and personality to a great extent. It is questionable whether i benefitted or otherwise.     These are my own personal experiences as a youngster but will put it in the form of a narrative by a third person. This is to avoid getting emotional while narrating. i hope readers will understand my feelings, , .                        

      That was year 1983 when Ramya was about 15 years and her brothers were 13 and 12 years respectively. Like every year they all had travelled to spend their summer vacation at their grandfather's place in the beautiful city or rather townish Mysore. Mysore known for Royal palace and gardens was always enticing to the young children. The city had the rural atmosphere even though it was moving towards a city atmosphere gradually due to influx of foreign travellers who used to visit Mysore to enjoy the Royalty present there since so many years. Ramya and her family would be joined by her aunt's and maternal uncle's families. Her grandfather who was a retired head master used to wait eagerly to see all his relatives, so that he could spend his time with them and feel hhappy. Ramya's Grandfather used to stay with his younger son who used to work as an accountant at the Royal Palace. He used to get to see many celebrities from film industry who used to visit the Palace for the sake of movie shooting. One such visit he got to meet the He Man of Bollywood Mr. Dharmendra whom her uncle described as the Real He Man. As per her uncle the actor used to excersize very early in the morning. He used to drink atleast a litre of raw milk. May be these are the secrets of his health even now thinks Ramya. He even got to meet the Superstar Rajinikanth who gifted her uncle a brass bracelet that had the image of his favourite God of a shrine down South called Mantralayam. Ramya recalls how her Uncle's baby boy got to act in a movie with the Telugu film Super Star NTR. It was by chance this opportunity came the baby's way.  The child artist who was supposed to act in the movie fell sick and the production unit was frantically looking for a replacement. Just then they saw Ramya's baby cousin who had come along his mother who had accompanied Ramya and her family to the Palace to show them around. The baby was chosen to be a part of the shooting and all of them had a very beautiful experience that day (now the baby cousin is the father of a baby) obviously, this is an experience of a very long time.                       

   Ramya even recalls how they as young kids enjoyed looking at the trains coming in and going out as their grandfather's house was very very near to the Railway Station. This was altogether a very new experience as the city in which they lived had the Railway Station very far away from their place of residence and during the day of any journey catching and boarding the train on time was almost like a challenge which each one of us know for the obvious reason of heavy very heavy traffic in cities.        These are all snippets about the location, lifestyle etc. Now let us come to the main point of the story.    Ramya's grandfather who had retired as a School head master was very disciplined, learned, highly educated and very jovial too. His wisdom about many things were so appealing to all his grandchildren and to Ramya specially because she was the eldest among his grandchildren. She used to discuss so many things with him and got so much knowledge about politics, economy, science and even movies. He was so good with languages other than his mother tongue and Ramya seems to have got the same gene from him. She remembers how he was a great fan of the yester years singer Mohammad Rafi and how he would sing those songs sometimes to the kids. These are all fond memories.     Her grandfather had a beautiful glass jar that was transparent and he used to keep it filled with colourful peppermints yes they were so attractive and tasty. Many a times the kids including Ramya used to get one peppermint per head and two if his mood was good. Ramya was not satisfied with that. She used to think of taking the jar out of the cupboard and get as many peppermints as possible and relish the taste. She would like to share few with her younger cousins and brothers as well. How to get the jar was the challenge .                 

After some wait, she finally got a chance to get the jar out of the cupboard. Her grandfather was away to the pension office one day and he had left the cupboard keys hanging to the door. Ramya was so pleased to see the key. She immediately got an idea. Yes it was to get hold of the glass jar from the cupboard . She brought all the cousins together and they made a plan . Slowly they opened the cupboard without elders at home noticing it. Ramya picked up the jar and counted the tasty colourful peppermints in the jar. It was a bounty. Each one picked up few of them randomly under Ramya's guidance . It was a treat for them which they thoroughly enjoyed. Ramya quietly put back the jar expecting that grandfather might be back anytime. Grandfather came back as expected. He had few covers with him which he handed over to his grandchildren including Ramya. All the children binged on the peppermints and felt so happy innocently. They thanked their grandfather feeling a lot guilty as they had picked his carefully guarded glass jar of peppermints without his permission. Ofcourse they were confident that their grandfather will not get annoyed even if he new about their prank. But, they knew it for sure that he would not be happy that they picked up the glass jar in his absence. It was childhood prank anyways.         

                

    Looking back after many years when Ramya herself became a parent, she realises that the glass jar was so valuable to her grandfather not because of the jar's price or quality but the ingredients in the jar that might have satisfied his hunger pangs sometimes or his sweet tooth many times. She advises her younger generation kids that they need to make a habit at attending to elders atleast in their immediate family to start with. They can fetch them food of their choice whenever times permits. It does not cost them a fortune but it will be fortunate to do so and get to see the glee in their eyes and blessings from them. Isn't it worth all the efforts folks?