80.Our little grand ‘sun’ and his histrionics

When  I returned  from  North  Cyprus  cancelling   part of the  leave as per the email  from the   Director of NITC welcoming me back to contribute whatever possible for  building  of the  National Institute of Technology Calicut, we  had  already got our first  grandson. As a fitting reward for the efforts of our  daughter in law in preparing for the  PG entrance examination, she  had also got selection  to the  PG course in the department of Opthalmology  at Calicut Medical College. After  the delivery and   mandatory rest, she returned  to  Calicut  with  our  grandson.

For  ordinary  mortals  like  us, it is an  unforgettable stage  in our life to be a grandpa and grandma. As  parents, we had  very little time to take  care  of the children  or play with them and  share  our affection  with them as we  were running around as  bread winners  of the family. We were almost racing against the clock to  earn sufficiently to make the future  of the family safe and sound.  Of course, I know, there  may be a  few who could strike a  balance  between all these, but  frankly I was  not one among those  disciplined  ones. However, things are  totally different when you  have a grandchild. We  could  easily find time  to watch almost everything as  the child  is growing and enjoy every moment  with him. Let  me share a few   things  I could  remember, as he grew as the  VIP  of the  house  with  special care from his  grandma.

Our  routine  on regular working days  was  like this. Our daughter(in law) and me   used  to start in our  Maruti  800  to   N.I.T.Calicut  by about 815 AM, drop her at the  Medical College  so that I could reach  NITC by 855AM , in time  to join my work. Grandma and the  child had  wonderful time  at home  till about 3 PM  or so, when his mother  could come back from her college.

As a grandson,   he was  very  considerate and  loving to his grandma, much more  mature  for his age. Once, we leave the house  in the morning, our house will be the empire  of the  child and his grandma. Rarely he used to sleep in the day time and will always  be doing something without any break.  If his grandma  lies  down  for a while after  the  lunch and close  her eyes pretending to sleep, he would  come  close to her, observe  her   closely and  slowly  lift her eyelids with his tiny fingers telling that  ‘Grandma, please don’t sleep,  I  will  be  scared if you sleep’.    

                 

Sometimes, he and grandma  used  to go to  a small  shop near the colony boundary where  they were  making banana chips in the  open  space. Main purpose  of going there  is to buy banana chips  which was his favourite. There,  they could  buy  it really hot and crisp. He used  to enjoy seeing how  banana chips are  made, how briskly one man cuts the  full ripe  banana  into slices, another washing it and third person slowly putting it into the  big vessel  containing  hot coconut oil. He used  to imitate  the  ‘hissing’ sound  produced when the  wet  banana slices  are  being put into the  hot oil. While  going to the shop, he was very particular that the  money purse  should be entrusted with him. He was  unusually enthusiastic about buying the  chips, pay the  money, collect the  balance given by the shopkeeper and keep it in grandmas purse carefully. If he   meets  any elderly lady on the way, she  will  call from their behind ‘grandma, grandma’ and almost  every  lady will  wait for him to come  to her, say something to him and then only   move  away, however  hurriedly   they were  going ahead. Any lady   of his grandma’s age   or nearabout was  hid grandma  too, the real innocence  of the  childhood.

Like  his father, he was a bit hyperactive and every now and then, he used  to fall  down. Seeing this, if the grandma runs to him and asks him “ Are  you hurt, my darling?”, he   rarely cried  in front of his grandma and he used  to console  her  telling’ don’t worry  grandma, it is nothing , I am ok’. Even while drops of blood is oozing out of the skin over his knee, he  never  used to cry , it was a wonder.

Now with  me,  if he  is not sleeping, he will  come near  me and watch what I am doing. If I am writing something, I have  to give him a pen and paper. If I am doing some tinkering work with a screwdriver  or something like that, I have  to give him  a small screwdriver and so on. When  I go out  on a Saturday morning to wash my car with a bucket of water and an old cloth, I had  to give him another  piece  of cloth to clean  up  one side of the car.

Once, we were really embarrassed  with his penchant  for neatness of the car when   my younger  brother’s daughter and her husband  came to our house  for the first time.  Being a bit careless  like all youngsters  of these days, the car  they had  come  had lot of dirt  on its sides. While  we were talking  to them inside the  house, suddenly we  felt  the child  is not seen  inside. As  we were  looking for him, we saw with a piece  of cloth dipped  in water he was slowly cleaning up the car in which   they had come.  The  young  girl and  boy were  really ashamed  to see  that. We  had  to tell them , it is his nature  to clean up the car  whenever  he sees  some dirt on our car and he  applied  the same  care  to your car too. Of course, they ultimately appreciated  his efforts and the innocence.

Whenever , my wife  used to buy fish from the  fish vender  who brought it in his bicycle  to our gate, our grandchild  had to be on his  grandmas  hip to see  the full basket of fish and see  the different varieties  in the basket.  He was crazy about cars. There  was a set  of flats about 200  meters from our house. If someone starts a car  from the flat and move  to our side, this  boy used to identify the car  as it is moving in and call our Indica, Fiat Maruti and all. Even  I could  not say for certain which brand car it is unless it is  very close  to me.  He had a  wonderful collection of toy cars  of different types and even a miniature auto-rickshaw which he liked most. He  was also a bit crazy  about  dinosaurs. Once we went to the  planetarium, he saw  a few statues of them  in the children’s  play area.  When I pointed out to one which looked life an elephant and asked  him have you seen that  big elephant, he ridiculed me telling  “ Shame, shame,  grandpa, it is not an elephant, it is a mammoth’. Of course , I was  not sure  of the  difference between the  pre-historic animal called mammoth and our elephant!!!

On Saturdays, when I am free, he used  to  hang around me  leaving grandma to do her  household chores and ask me  occasionally “Grandpa, let us go around for a drive’. In rainy seasons, we used to catch tiny  fish from the  small canal using a  cloth, put it in a Horlicks bottle and make a temporary aquarium  in the house. He was very careful to give them food in the  morning and evening. Like  in our younger  days I used to make small toys   with coconut tree leaves  and with tiny coconuts and he used to sit in wonder watching  me make it. Occasionally, he tried to make  something like  that in a similar way.

Now  he  is a grown up, almost  6ft  tall  studying in his  12^th  class  trying for  university  admission  at the end of next year. We  don’t  know  whether  he remembers any of these . But we  can never  forget  these as we  used to enjoy every moment  with him and still cherish every second  with him.