The Story of A Grandmother

Every family has a minimum of two grand mothers and grandfathers, one paternal and one maternal, with whom the grandchildren closely interact. In big joint families there can be many grandmothers and grandfathers. Life can be very interesting in such families because some of these grandmothers can be so endearing and lovable that they are fondly remembered even after several years after they leave this world. They are always alive in the hearts of the family members. It is common that Grandmothers tell stories to their grandchildren. Here is a grandmother whose life is remembered as a story by her grandchildren.

My mother’s family was a huge joint family. Her father and his three brothers, their spouses, children and grand children lived in a big bungalow in the city of Vishakhapatnam or Vizag , for short. All the youngsters undergoing education lived in this town house. There was also a family home in the village nearby and some of the members used to live there also.

Now, central to our story is the eldest paternal aunt , that is my mothers eldest uncle’s wife, who was the first lady of the family. She was either Peddamma (eldest amma ) or Peddammama (eldest grandmother!) Her name was not very well remembered. There was not many seniors to her to address her with her name and traditionally the husband wouldn’t prefer to call her by name, particularly in the presence of other family members. She was innocence personified and absolutely would not differentiate between her own children and rest of the children. This quality of her’s endeared her to one and all. All the family members cherish her memories , some of which are hilarious, even today.

 If any of the boys got late to return home, which they often did as they would have gone on some errand or for study related activity, she would worry to no end and would take a vow that if the boy came back safely she would break a coconut at Vizag’s famous “Kanakamahalakshmi”s temple and fast for a day. Given the size of the family she would be fasting and breaking coconuts all the days in the week! Thought it was unintentional, the result was that all the male members tried to reach home in time so that she would not have to fast. She on her part genuinely worried for the safety of her family and would never break her promise to goddess. The ritual would be same if anyone in the family fell ill. In those days of 1970’s when the population was not so dense and traffic was sparce, she would be frequenting the temple by foot so often, that she was a familiar figure to everyone around!

Another outcome of her naïveté , now people find hilarious but in those days was troubling a lot, the young boys of the family. In Brahmin houses there was this practice of “Madi” where cooked food was separated from uncooked items and cooked food was not allowed to be taken everywhere. Without dwelling into too many details of the practice I will come to the point relevant to the story. Our peddammama would find a grain of cooked rice in the big sump of water, which a child could have accidentally dropped in while washing the hand after lunch! It was not acceptable to this orthodox lady and she without a second thought would drain the entire sump consisting of about 4000 litres of water! It was the duty of the young boys/men to fill the sump from a nearby community tap. They would do this quite frequently, without a word of complaint as there was no scope for argument or convincing her and moreover, they all loved her to no end.  

I think every family has one or two people with a heart of gold and inclusive mind that they keep the family running and make a special place in the heart of every family member. We all remember you fondly where ever you are peddammamma (grandma) and trust that your blessings are ways with us.