Love remains

What is more amazing and wonderful I wonder.
1. Your grand’pa(father’s father) writing you poem in a letter and mails it to you when you are just 2 years old and went to your maternal home for few months. or
2. Your grand’ma(mother’s mother) saves that letter for decades just to give you when you are grown up because you were too small to even read when the letter was written.
Both happened to me.

I had to share this with world. I was torn between feeling so happy and terribly sad.

I am just back from a trip to my home, Kolkata. Went home after almost 1yr and 8months. Bhai is also there for his vacation. Though we both live in the same city, me settled here with job and family and he doing his BDS, but being at kolkata home together feels really special. Last week one night Ma and Bhai was chatting while sitting in the red colored floor of our ground floor bed room. I have spent my entire childhood rolling, playing, sleeping on that floor. I know every inch of it.  It was our usual adda session. We talk a lot with each other when we are home. Sometimes we fight too. But that comes with the package. I was just happy being back at home.

I joined them and Ma handed me over a piece of paper from my grand father’s(father’s father) prescription pad, something scribbled in it. The paper was wrapped in a transparent plastic bag. I was surprised as I identified my grandpa’s hand writing in it, which looked like a poem. Ma told me that my grand mother(mother’s mother) saved it for years and gave it to my mother recently so that she can send that to me. My jaw dropped as I started reading. It was written when I was just 2 years old.

Then Ma told me the background story about it. When I was born Ma was doing her final year of B. Sc.. So she couldn’t finish her studies at that time in order to take care of me and took a break. After 2years she went back to college to finish her studies and become a graduate. She stayed with her parents as the college was nearer from there. She took me too, obviously, with her. I was away from my one set of grand parents for few months while I enjoyed being with my other set of grand parents and in addition I had two Mama(Ma’s brother and her cousin) there to enjoy my days and forgot everyone else. One of those days my paternal grand father wrote me that letter, to be precise the poem, and drew pictures around it. I was too young to read it. I never knew or remembered it existed. I already had another master piece though, which he wrote when I was born. It feels great you know, to have poems written for you, about you.

As I reached at the last para of the poem I was already crying inside and there he goes like this “sonai amar lokkhisona kandchho tumi ki?(my dear good girl, are you crying?)…“. How did he know??! The poem was actually in a jovial tone but he got me there. It hit me hard. How on earth did he manage to know that by that last paragraph I will be really crying when I will read that letter. I got goosebumps. Too much of coincidence! I tried hard not to shed tears.

It took a lot of strength to keep myself from crying in front of Ma and Bhai. I didn’t cry. Now that I am back to my present life’s den, bangalore I got to think about it alone. And now I can’t stop crying.

Some 3 decades ago my absence was so painful for my grand’pa that he wrote that letter to me even knowing that I won’t be able to read it as I was too small. He must have hoped that someone will read it too me. He made pictures around it so that I could still enjoy it without being able to read it. He hoped it right. My maternal grand’ma(the only one still alive from the four of my most affectionate grand parents) not only saved it for three decades for me, but also understood that it would be a treasure to me.

I am really glad that I am still sane to value such small gestures and small piece of papers and sincerely they make my world. They make my day, month, year, decades, the whole life time. My grand parents and parents must have raised me right. I was loved. I was blessed. They left me treasures I can cherish till I die. I always miss him terribly since he is gone. The void in my life due to his absence will never go but still today I feel I am one of the richest persons in this world.

Will we be able to leave such treasures and love for our next generations?