My Grandparents

These are my dear grandparents.

Almost my entire good childhood is spent under their shadows. Even though it's been years, I remember how I used to spend every weekend with my grandparents at their place.

This picture has been taken on 09-05-2019, while celebrating their 59th marriage anniversary. They got married in 1960 (as sharply remembered by my grandfather) and ever since they have been together, fighting every difficulty life threw upon them.

My grandfather used to be an extremely respected cop back in his days when working with the Police department was still a job of respect and there wasn't so much corruption and greed. He retired as an ACP at Lal Bazar traffic department with a lot of respect from people and a lot of well wishers who loved him for his honesty.

Post retirement they settled down outside the city where he had bought a land and built his own house while he was still working. This was probably a reason why even though I was born in late 1989, I could still enjoy somethings that most kids of my generation couldn't enjoy: big open endless green fields to run till I was out of my breath, play cricket, climb trees, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, etc.

The way I remember my grandparents is that my grandfather used to be a strong and stout man. He would wake up at 05:00 AM every morning, workout, clean shave, take a shower, make his morning tea and then sit with a newspaper reading it while enjoying the tea. These initial habits were from years of service with the Police department. Once it would be 07:00 AM by his watch, He would take his bag and go off to buy vegetables, meat and or fish. He would come back, fresh up and sit on his easy chair, turn on the radio, and listen to the most popular channel back then, "Akashwaani Kolkata". He would listen to news, sports commentary, old Bengali songs by different artists, story telling, etc. Everything he did was bound by routine. He was a man of principles.

In the mean time my grandmother would wake up she would spend the entire day cleaning the house, washing clothes and at kitchen cooking every delicacy she could think of. A typical house wife as she has always been.

My grandfather liked gardening a bit so sometimes he would spend some time doing that. Evenings would be mostly him watching news or sports on the TV until 09:00 PM, that's when he would always go off to sleep.

My grandmother would then watch some movies until 11:00 PM and then finally sign off for the day.

When I see them now, so weak and helpless, I feel so angry and upset. It's so difficult to see what age does to people. I have already seen my grandparents from my mother's side leave this world, and but I was young and it didn't affect me as much it does to me now, that I'm more mature, seeing my grandparents age.

When my grandfather was asked if my grandmother was beautiful when she was young, her replied,

"Possibly she was, I don't know" and then laughed about his statement.

He was then asked if he fell in love with her before they got married, he replied, 

"Would we be married if we weren't in love?"

He kept on talking about his younger days with his love of life while my grandmother kept staring at him.

It was the most beautiful moment I've experienced till date. Probably this is what true love means, this is what growing old together means, and even though age brings so much pain and disabilities, it is so beautiful to have your life partner with you, with all her flaws, all her disabilities, looking at you with so much affection, and remembering every beautiful moment spent together.

They have set a benchmark in my mind. A benchmark probably this generation can never achieve, probably even myself.

Long live Thamma, long live Dadai! ♥️