The one who is Yours

All doors and windows were tightly shut to prevent the hot wind from entering the house when the family retired for siesta on summer afternoons. Boisterous grandchildren visiting during their summer break were strictly instructed to lie down on the Persian carpet in the guest room brought from Kabul and shut their eyes. “Not a tweet out of any of you!” Grandfather shouted and shut the bedroom door. The moment the door closed, the guest room began to reverberate with the muffled chatter of caged children. Anu had closed her eyes lest the evil spirit barged in through the gaps in the windows along with the searing loo. She gave a start when she heard a low voice. “Could djinns speak?” she was trying to guess and drew the sheet over her head. But now the spirit was nudging her, “Let’s play ludo.” “Who is that?,” she was about to scream but opened her eyes to see that it was only her cousin. But she had spoken loud enough to have awakened Grandfather. He rubbed his eyes, scowled and told them to shut up in a loud whisper, “Grandmother is sleeping”.

Grandfather was an angry old man. He would lose his temper at the slightest pretext. But Mother swore that he was the most caring man on earth! He did appear to care for Grandmother. The ‘secret five’, as the cousins named themselves, were silenced into somnambulist games of cards, or whatever they were planning to play, by Grandfather’s warning tone which meant no evening snacks. Anu was snoozing and began to dream about Grandfather’s first meeting with Grandmother, a story she had coaxed out of Grandmother when she was sitting on a low wooden stool in the kitchen rolling parathas. “Why do you have so many holes in your earlobes, Biji?” she had asked Grandmother because her own ears had not been pierced in early childhood like those of all other girls her age. Grandmother had smiled to herself and had recalled her first meeting with Grandfather and shared titbits.

When you are seven going on eight, grandparents appear to be fossils, particularly if they are grey-headed and have several missing teeth. Grandparents in those days knew how to gracefully and did not try to look young.  Grandfather was tall, slim and fair with an athletic gait. Mother thought he was the most handsome man on earth and resembled a well known Hindi movie star, who hailed from the same region as Grandfather. Anu was forced to concede the striking similarity between the two after watching the film of his lookalike actor who was nearly Grandfather’s age at present. Despite his newly acquired movie star status, Grandfather appeared only like an old man to Anu because of his shaky front teeth though he must have been barely sixty. Grandmother was a couple of years younger and looked much older because of her silver hair and toothless smile. She would wear her denture only when she stepped out of the house or if they had unknown visitors and become almost unrecognizable. She was short and plump and Grandfather towered over her at six feet something. Her face was completely wrinkled but she had a golden complexion that matched the earrings that glinted on her earlobes. All grandparents ought to look like this, Anu thought to herself. But she could not ever imagine them being young or falling in love particularly Grandfather who was always angry.

The trend of wearing multiple ear studs had not yet caught on. Anu counted the holes on Grandmother’s ears. She had nine on each side. “I used to gold rings in each one of those when I was a young girl,” Grandmother reminisced a light smile playing on her lips. The smile widened when a pleasant memory erupted from her homeland beyond the border. “I had gone to the fair in the town with all the rings and kaante in my ears with my friend when your Grandfather’s brother spotted me.” Grandmother had been engaged to Grandfather many years ago but they had not seen one another. “Oh kehri (Who is the one?), Grandfather had asked his brother without taking his eyes off the brightly dressed girls. Pointed at Grandmother, his brother had replied “Oh teri(the one who is yours). Grandmother smiled again at the reported conversation. Suddenly feeling their gaze on her face, Grandmother blushed a beetroot red and covered her face. But she had also sneaked a quick look and checked him out. Anu tried to imagine Grandmother as a teenager with bright clothes and gold rings and Grandfather as a boyish young man. Grandmother always dressed in white now and was persuaded to sell all her gold jewellery by Grandfather lest they should be looted and killed during the communal riots. The only piece of jewellery she wore was the kaante she was wearing when they fled violence.

They got married a couple of years later while they were still in their teens. Anu recalled her Mother tell her that Grandmother had left Grandfather and returned to her peke(parents’ house) because of his fiery temper. When provoked, he would even slap Grandmother that she refused to put up with. Mother, who couldn’t ever find any fault with her father, defended him by saying that he was too young to take on family responsibilities. It was only when Grandfather was struck with cholera and nearly died when Grandmother returned to look after him.

The sixth cholera pandemic (1899–1923) was a major outbreak of cholera beginning in India and Grandfather was struck by the dreadful disease in 1921, a year after he got married. Grandmother packed her clothes and immediately left for the town where he was posted. She stepped into the house to find it in a total disarray. Unwashed clothes and vessels lay in heaps all around the room. She gingerly made her way through the mess towards the bed where her husband lay covered with a thick khes. When he turned to look at her, she was shocked to see that the strong, well-built young man she had left behind had shrunk to one third of his size. His eyes were sunken and his tall frame was reduced to a bare skeleton. He had been ill for several days and was barely able rise from the bed. She sat on the side of the bed and told him, “I am here now. You will be well soon.” She changed and set about restoring a semblance of order to the house. First, She picked up the dirty linen and put it out for wash and took all the dirty vessels to the kitchen. Then she dusted all the objects in the house, swept and mopped it thoroughly. By the evening, it began to look like a home. As the smell of phulkas baking on the chulha entered Grandfather’s nostrils, his appetite returned. Grandmother brought him steaming hot phulkas and dal in a thali and placed it on a stool next to his bed. Beginning with a light, easy to digest diet, she gradually added nourishing items and nursed Grandfather until he began to look like his former self again. Grandfather never struck her again and she did not leave him ever again.

It was difficult for Anu to imagine Grandfather beating Grandmother because he seemed completed henpecked now. He would still fly into a rage at the slightest opportunity.  But “Whatever your Grandmother says” would be his standard response to any decision that needed to be made. He seemed to have been an untypical husband in the era when patriarchy ruled. Ever since the time of cholera, the twenty year old not only began to take his responsibilities as a husband seriously but also lent support to Grandmother’s family in every possible way. Grandmother always had one of her younger sisters stay with them because of poor schooling in her home town. Her brothers would stay at her place for extended visits whenever they needed to be in the town without Grandfather raising any objections. When Grandmother’s mother was widowed, Grandfather helped her with her property and other affairs. Grandfather’s mother and brothers would tease him about his unconventional involvement in the affairs of his wife’s family. But Grandfather didn’t care a bit any more. He went to the extent of encouraging Grandmother to resume her studies that she had been forced to leave after marriage. Grandmother received training and got a job, an unheard of thing in those days.

The young couple stood by each other in every adverse situation. The loss of two infants in quick succession followed by that of a toddler had not only drained Grandmother physically but also affected her mental health. When they believed life was taking a turn for the better, the Partition of India was announced. All they could manage to save was their own lives and that of their children. They had to leave everything behind. Now in their mid-thirties, they had to rebuild their lives brick by brick. Hell would still break loose if Grandfather got angry. But Grandmother had learnt over the years to soothe his frayed nerves. Anu was smiling in her sleep.