These memories will last... an eternity...

A string of fond indelible memories sharing with my online family...



age 1: Hot sultry Sunday afternoon. I am sitting on the dining table, playing with the mixer, containing green and white coloured chutney. Amma asks my cousin to look after me for a while. I wanna get down to the floor as I see my little cousin brother playing with my toy car. My cousin very very dedicated to my amma's words does not let me down. I smear my cousin's eyes with the chutney and jump down the table.

Amma runs barefoot to the doctor, with me crying uncontrollably in her arms, four stitches on my forehead , still visible. She taught me that the most powerful weapon on earth is a mother's pure unadulterated love for the child.




age 4: Me standing outside sandhi fancy stores, Mylapore, Chennai.. Getting attracted to a red and blue water bottle. I ask amma to get it for me that very instant. She refuses. I throw a tantrum.. she does not budge and walks away from the shop. I try going higher in pitch, hoping that would make her retrace her steps, I fail miserably and run behind her , finally catching her palloo. There she taught me, persistence and force does not always win..



age 6: This was when my sister was born. And its pretty natural to feel avoided and possessive over amma. I bite my hand with my own teeth and tell amma showing the teeth imprints that she did it. Amma knew it was me, but used to chide my sister, who did not even learn to walk properly and tell me I should be her best friend in all walks of life, be her guiding star always and love her. She taught me to love, truly from the heart, may it be for five minutes or fifty years, she taught me to love, without being ostentatious, without expectations, since expectations is always proportional to frustration.

age 12: Goa. Heavy vernal showers. Appa's office is 2km further down my school. My school at 8 and so is his office. Not one day has he dropped me in his car, though we start at the same time. I used to make holes in my raincoat and try to trigger sympathy waves but to no avail. Maximum he did was get me fresh raincoats every month. It was a three km walk from home. But now, I do not regret. He taught me reality is perennial, luxury is short lived

age14: Appa told me stories of Dasaratha and other mythological stuff.. I asked him when Dasaratha could have four wives, why cant you? That was the day he realised, I was born an iconoclast, and never thrust religion upon me, to date.
Its been my wish to be agnostic and they have never meddled with my feelings. He fed me with books, made me drink good music, experiment with physics and nature, and taught me until you burn your fingers, you never know what heat is.

age 15: Pre board exams. CBSE social science paper. It gave me jitters and nightmares. Never remembered dates, names places and tenures of Pres and PM. Stayed up all night and amma stayed up with me too, saying she aint sleepy, and kept giving me fresh filter coffee every two hours. She is the world's best mom whose care binds me to her forever.

age 18: Who said we cannot share certain things with mom? This is when I started discussing most datable guys, looks, crushes and err.. sex too. This is when she taught me: frankness forms the basis of any true bond.

age 22: Here I am now, on my amma's lap,.

feeling the freshness and tranquility of heaven, thinking of all these memories,thinking of my parents, as to how two perfectly contrasting characters can live so happily together.. They fell in love after marriage,which was coincidentally on Feb 14, even today, appa and amma go out on candle light dinner, go on a long drive, appa cooks at home on Sundays and falls ill when amma goes out of station They are a paradigm of a perfect couple, who drown their differences in the ocean of ceaseless love.Slowly I close my eyes, to the music of her bangles, when her hand caresses my hair fondly.