She's Gone
"Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
and things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art; to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
She passed away last night.
After almost a century of seeing it all - being the daughter of the most wealthy person in the town, to living in a fort after marriage, wearing imported silks and riding horses, meeting Gandhi, Nehru & Netaji, losing everything in partition, delivering a baby on a train station, learning to ride a bicycle after bearing her 6th child, living through the loss of her husband almost 40 years ago, telling everyone stories from the granth-sahib - forgetting almost all of them due to failing memory, losing most of her vision, all of her teeth & gums and quite a bit of her ability to walk, never once failing to enjoy either a cricket match or a hollywood movie if i was translating alongside, enjoying her mathris with as much relish as it was trouble to eat them with no teeth, taking care of her paralytic DIL after her son died of cancer in front of her eyes, never failing to take a jab at me and smiling the toothless smile - 'Tu to Gujratan ho gayi'.......
We all used to joke for years that a news of a India winning in a match or a phone call from a dear one, would make sure she will come back from her death-bed. Wish I had called :-(
Time. Pain. Misforture. Death - Nothing could touch her, nothing could affect that zest for life. She passed away - i hope - knowing she never once showed her back to life.
I love you Dadi. Wish I could have gotten another chance to say it to you.
posted by Incredibly Indian @ 2:02 AM
Comments: 3
