I have my Mamama's (maternal grandma) genes. I love my people and enjoy talking. I know what I want and will be pretty animated about stuff I am not interested in. I get bored very easily and have a sharp tongue when
samne wala doesnt have the brains to read my body language. I think I can enact my Mamama better with actions than words but I want to capture her and everything she stands for. Some random memories when I think "Mamama".
-She hardly ever told us stories
But she reads these Kannada magazines while she dozes off a lil on lazy afternoons and shares her opinions and some funny cartoons to shut us up from bothering her.
-No hugs or kisses or excitement to see us
But everytime I sit by her and hug her, she first pushes me away saying, " You are not a kid anymore, stop kissing me." And then squeezes me hand saying,"Its been so long since I saw you."-Most gifts given to her are accepted with a ton of skepticism and an expression that said it all.
But these days she asks for "Efferdent" for her dentures and is very grateful that thats all I will send and "not waste my husband's money on her". -No major show of gift giving or hand made woollens like grandmas make.
But every year for our birthdays my younger sister and I got dark colored nighties because she claimed we were tomboys and didnt care where we sat and always had some patch or the other on our butts and the dark nighty would "conceal" it. My goody 2 shoes older sister got the peaches, whites and pretty ones coz she was O so perfect.(She still sends them to me every time my Amma visits).
- She played favorites among the grandkids and only had a nick name for our oldest sister. The rest of us were "keelluh" (critters).
But everytime I visited, all my favorites were cooked. I mean ALL of them. There was no loving way of serving it, but I was amazed how she remembered each one our favorite foods. If the other cousin's visited with me, all of their favorites were made too.
-No conversations revolving wisdom or advice.
Most of our conversations are around when she will die! Now, now, I'm not that bad (OK, I know I am, but hear me out...)
I ask her to come over and she says,"I'm too old to travel and dont care to visit a foreign country so much. Your Ajja would have loved it if he was still alive. He should have lived and I should have died.".......Now, tell me how can I let this go, so I play along and say,"That's soo true. It would have been great with him. So when are you planning on dying?" So now everytime I call her, she makes sure she starts off with," Hello, I'm still alive!! Anikai marni!"--(havent died yet).
-Makes any special occassion a nightmare because we have to pick a Sari for her. And she will only wear darker shades of black, maroon, brown, maroonish-brown, blackish-brown, brownish-black and brownish-maroon!! No lines, no stripes, no similar patterns that will make her nauseous, no patli pallu, no belgaum sari, no blouse piece included, no bird patterns (Her words,"aiiio Moru (peacock), aiio Keeru (parrot))", generally saris given by extended family are discarded without even looking at because she thinks they themselves are too ugly and wear ugly-ass Saris, how can they pick something decent for her!
But she makes sure she PROUDLY tells everyone that the Sari she's wearing was given to her by one of us.
I love it...and her a little bit.
