Sundays

       Today as i drag myself out of the bed on a lazy Sunday morning , make myself a hot cup of coffee , sit in my balcony overseeing the beautiful Kochi backwaters i think to my self were Sundays always like this ?
        Like most of the Indian homes mine too started its Sundays with the evergreen Hindi songs played on the Doordarshan channel and my mom humming tunes , singing them while she prepared breakfast for us. After a tasty snack it was shopping time .... not as fun as it sounds today , it was time for some fruits and veggies shopping and my mom would be assisted by the services of yours truly. when this ritual began i somehow was never interested walking around in the sun,following my mom as she continued to look for the best crop and bargained in her own subtle style . she had soon found out a way to get me interested in this weekly exercise. she used to hand me some petty change in a small zipper pouch and i was given the big responsibility of paying the vendors after mom had struck the deal. it was a big responsibility , all the counting , calculating ,taking back the change and all of  it . it made me feel important , in charge and responsible .. mom had successfully got me interested in something as boring as vegetable shopping .and ever since then  the sundays after that i used to be  looking forward to it with great enthusiasm. i really miss those sundays they were so much better than the ones today ... i miss being a kid , when all that petty change meant so much money and homework was the biggest responsibility towards the world.

Point Of View ..

           The phrase point of view means a lot different things to different people and to some it doesn't mean anything at all... such was the case of the eight year old when his grandfather asked him " How does this look?" ... "what is your point of view on this ?" staring endlessly at the hen pen that he had constructed the kid wondered to himself   "point of what ?!?!" this is not the oldest memory of my grandfather that i have but was surely the one that ignited a whole new chain of thoughts ...  over the next ten minutes he explained to me what exactly point of view meant and in a very practical way giving a simple example of a cat and hen.
          My grandfather Aa ba as we all lovingly called him was an army man. he was an important asset to the Indian army during the various conflicts of the 60's and the 70's including the Indo-China and the Indo-Pak wars . I being his first grandchild had real big shoes to fill and huge expectations to fulfill . the first one he handed me on my fourth birthday, a mean looking plastic toy gun, yes ! he wanted me to join the army and continue the legacy of our family. Another thought that he regularly kept imbibing in all his grandchildren minds was...." My father rode a bicycle, i ride a scooter ... my son drives a car , i want to see all of you flying planes ... " . we recently lost our dear grandfather but seeing the rate at which his grandchildren were progressing i am sure he had guessed the day he had dreamt of them flying planes was not that far.
            the memories of him taking us on his shoulders and running around and he teaching us how to catch and cook live chicken and rabbits .... taking us for the long walk through our fields and telling us stories with a moral behind each ... emphasizing on the usage of English as a medium of communication and igniting  thoughts and conversations and over stressing importance of knowledge ... that's what aa ba was all about ....                                                                 We Will Always Miss U Aaba...