“Welcome home!” my grandmother exclaimed in excitement at
the site of us. It was not my first
visit to India, but definitely my first visit to Kerala. Here is where my
grandparents from my mother’s side resided. I scan the area around the house.
It is covered with all sorts of plants of different shapes and sizes. At the
corner of the house was a well with many cattle around. “Samara, why don’t you come inside? It’s
quite hot outside” my grandfather asked in our native language – Malayalam. Unable to reply back in the same language I
nodded my head and walked in. “Ma, can
you switch on the air conditioner, I am feeling really hot” I asked as I walked
in the house and saw my mother. Immediately after learning my little statement
my mother started to laugh. My father, grandmother and grandfather also joined
in. “Samara….we don’t have an air conditioner but the fans here work wonders”
my grandmother said as she went to the other room. No air conditioning, how can people hear bear
this heat? This is not the way I planned on spending my summer vacation. “Why don’t you go and see around?” my dad
came and asked. Since I had nothing better to do I decided to explore.
Every room seems close to normal. The room that captured my
attention the most was my mother’s childhood room. I went in room and sat on the bed. On the
opposite wall, photo frame’s containing my mother’s photo as a baby and of
various phase of her life. Most people say I am ‘a carbon copy’of my mom,
now I see what they mean. Across this wall was her bookshelf. I love to read
books, so I went to see if there were any interesting books. I scanned the book self, to come across a sea
green diary covered by dust. I took the book out to see my mother’s name carved
on the front. It was my mom’s diary. I
always wondered if she was the same uptight person she is now, when she was
young. Curiosity grew as I ran and sat
on the bed.I flipped through the book, turning page by page. It was filled with
writings. I decided to stop at one random page. It said,
Dear Diary
Today has been rather eventful and to mention a great start for my
summer vacations. It started at the break of dawn, when all the houses which
were withdrawn with silence suddenly started to overflow with greetings. Like
every other house on the block, my house was no exception. Today, has everyone
exited and my mother stressed as we all decided to go to Mumbai. Joining us on
this trip is my dad’s two sisters, three brothers along with their families and
moms 3 brothers along with their family. This whole trip has got all my cousins
exited. So as soon as everyone came to my house, the mini- van taking us to the
train station arrived. All the men were putting in our suitcases in them, while
all the women were ensuring enough food has been cooked for everyone as it
would be a long trip. In the meantime all my cousin and I planned put what to
do during the journey. So once everyone got in the vanand settled down, the
whole family decided to play antakshari as the train station was quite far off.
The laughter we shared on many silly things, adults acting like children
accusing one another for cheating were the little moments I would never forget.
On reaching the train station, a head count was taken to make sure to
one got lost. Once that was done, we all got everything on the train and took
our seats. Once everyone was settled we decided on playing charades. The teams
this time were made on the basis of gender. Boys vs.
Girls. Of course we girls had the lead,
for which the boys accused us for cheating and it drifted slowly from charades
to a debate on which gender is better. But soon as time drifted away so did everyone’s
energy and before you knew it, everyone is asleep. Though today events did not
sound like much, I had a great time with my family and I knew we had many
adventures ahead of us. All our little moments of joy and laughter will always
be a constant reminder of the little moments that make up my life .
Yours Truly
Riya
The first thing I felt after reading this was a bit of
jealousy. Never in 10 years of my life have I ever gone on a road trip.
Dubai was a very small place and the longest journey I have ever been on, by car
is a hour and a half. Another fact that dawned upon me was that never have I
ever met the whole family in one place. I had a few cousins back home who I met
frequently and then I have a lot of cousins here who I meet every time on my
summer vacation. This is going to be the first time my whole family from Dubai,
America, London and India would be coming over to my grandmother’s house.
“Samara!! Where are you, Tanya and Rakesh are here” my mother yelled in a soft
comforting tone that took me away from my thoughts. I did not realize how much
of time had passed. Reading one entry from my mother journal gave me an insight
on what my life should contain. I closed the diary, took a deep breath, kept it
back as though it was untouched. “Coming, Ma” I said as I walked towards the
sound of laughter that would make up little moments of my life and probably a
very memorable summer vacation to write on in my holiday homework.
-Nikhita Menon
1st CEP
1313123
No comments:
Post a Comment