Grand Paa

You might have heard it quite a number of times, and if you are a female, you should have probably heard yourself say it, quite an extra number of times - "A father-daughter relationship is special" ! Indeed it is..I am a female specimen of the species and I have been fortunate to be blessed with a beloved father. And quite understandably, I know that it is as special as it can get. Quite understandably again, I cannot experience the other side of this divine relationship..I cannot fathom what physical or chemical reactions take place inside a male specimen, when he fathers a female offspring. Having grown up from being a boy to a lad to a gentleman, a father might not completely understand what is going on his little daughter's head, as she grows up from being a girl to a maiden to a lady. And yet, (or probably thats why), he adores her..And the doted daughter in most cases, dutifully reciprocates..A father-daughter kinship is probably an equivalence relationship.

This post is not about "hence proving" this graceful relationship. Its about illuminating yet another subtly beautiful companionship - grandfather and a granddaughter, specifically in reference to my context. As a young girl, I bonded well with grandfather like older gentlemen , in particular, my maternal grandfather. As I picture him as my grandparent in my mind's eye now, he was a fair gentleman, characterized by the walking stick, a couple of slokha text books and his medicine kit. As I try to picture him as a young parent, he was a towering personality,a seasoned musician and a pious brahmin. A graduate of the yester-yester-years, he had quite a command over the English language, it was pretty much Queen's. He had a penchant for music and poetry, and had performed in the then popular radio programmes. I particularly remember his voice for his bhajans adept with devotion, that he rendered in praise of the lords every evening in the pooja room.

My grandfather had a night-shift government job. Inevitably, his metabolism had muted immutably to stay awake most of the night, every night and sleep most of the day, every day. His physical self followed that routine until his last day. He loved connecting with people, especially his grandchildren. As my grandfather progressed to 'second childhood', his communion and conversation had more instances of child-speak in them. The bard was damn right!!

I visited my grandparents at Pondicherry only during my school term-holidays (which I looked forward throughout the term, inspite of the then seemingly tedious 7 hour journey). I was probably a little special, since I was visiting grandchild as against the in-the-city grandchildren. I loved bantering with him then, both sense and nonsense, both gossips around the streets and international news. One of the fondest memories of him that is etched in my brain is the story-recital session I shared with him. I forced him to storytell (in his own words) the stories from Chandamama and Champak. He gleefully obliged, and added spice with some animated DTS effects to those recital sessions.

He was proud of my academic achievements, little though they were. He thought I was a super-kid, How I wish it was true. Maybe every grandparent perceives their grandchild to be one, while parents are likely to be a little more realistic. Just a varying probability again! As with a parent-child relationship, the grandparent-grandchild counterpart seems to me to be mystic. A parent directly contributes to an offspring's genes, while the grandparent's genes are indirect, probably divided. Am not sure why the 'grand' affection seems to be multiplied though. Maybe it is some sort of inverse relationship!

My grandfather is not alive today. Today is not his birthday,nor his anniversary day. It is just another beautiful day, beautiful because I recollected some fond memories, and etched them to possible eternity, which would have otherwise perished with me.
I love you thatha!!