My Childhood with parents

My parents are made for each other. My father married to his sister's daughter. He was my hero. I loved him the most. My dad had lost his father and his mother was not bringing up properly, so he left her and he came out and grown on his own. He had a miserable childhood. He was a self made man and and achieved a honourable place in the society. He showed us the love and care which he didnt get in his childhood. I am proud to be his daughter and thanking god for given me such a nice father.

The age difference between me and my sisters are 6 and 9. So I can remember my days with my brothers. Since I am the eldest I used to boss over my siblings.

My mom was bit strict and she brought us so disciplined. She was little bit lazy and becasue of her we used to go to school late only. Mornings we had to help her. Me and Ganesh had been to same school. He joined the school when I was in third standard. We carried lunch in one small box and shared it in the afternoon. Evening we could play till 6 then we had to sit for study. 6 - 9 study hours. She would give supper only at 9. But since i was good at studies I was exempted from that :) and my dad was taking care of the second one, bala, so he would be with my dad. only me and Ganesh, would be at home. So only Ganesh had to study till 9. I would monitor him and he used to doze off during study. I, waiting for this moment, run to mom to tell that :)

Sunday shopping was important weekly programme. We accompanied mom in buying vegetables for the week. There I learned to bargain. :)

I was dad's pet. So whatever I used to ask my dad and my wishes would be fulfilled by him. He took us to many places and guided there. Yearly two tours would be there in our schedule. For every new year we visited a murugan temple. Then in summer some other places. We had roamed around almost all over Tamilnadu.

He was having a Java Bike. That was his favourite. Kodaikanal is 60 km from Palani. He loved to go to kodaikanal in his bike. I couldnot forget one adventurous trip on his bike to vaigai dam with my brothers. I was in 5th std that time. One fine morning mom packed some food for us and me with my brothers started with dad to vaigai dam. Since the seat is not enough for the four, one had to seat in the carrier on shift. It was nearly 120 km. We enjoyed the time there by playing. While returning it was dark I was so scared to sit at the carrier. I was so afraid of dark. I closed my eyes tightly and sat there praying :)

When I was in 5th std I told my dad that I didnt want to continue my studies in that school and wanted to girls high school because I was scared of a sister who used to pinch on stomach of late comers. I was sure I would be the late comer to school and strongly believed that I would be placed on her class :)

So I changed my school for sixth. My sixth teacher is a hindi pandit and she was taking hindi classes privately, So i joined in her class and learned little hindi. When I was in 7th std my dad expanded his business in madurai and he moved to madurai. We were in palani, he was shunting between palani and madurai. So he decided to move the family to Madurai. So started living with grandparents fulltime.

After school and during school holidays I would be there in my grandma's house. All my uncles and mom's cousins used to tease me a lot as they are called as 'murai mamas'. I tried to answer all of them but at some point I would start crying. They wouldnt stop teasing me even then. I was a good time pass for them. They enjoyed teasing me. When my dad was there, that place would be full of joy and laughter. He had kept a nick name for each one of his nephews and nieces and teased them with that. So they did tit for tat with me. I told them crying that I would bring my father to take care of them. But I had never stopped my visits to their home :)

I joined a new school for 8th std and continued my studies till +2. Teen age was the most difficult phase. So much of restrictions at home. I had to be confined to home. But I compare myself with my friend who was my neighbour and console myself that i was luckier than her. She was stopped her studies by 8th std itself and not allowed to go out of house. She was allowed to come out twice to in the clean the door step once in the morning and once in the evening. I pitied her so much.

There was some function in my grandma's house when i was in IX std. My mom's sisters wanted to take a pic of themselves together. As adamant I argued with them that they should include me also in their group. They refused me so got wild and ran crying to my dad telling that they had refused me to include me in the group so i didnt want them to use our camera for the snap. Then he consoled me and asked them to add me also with them. As my aunts are fatherless and my dad was maternal uncle to them, he used to buy gifts for them but being possessive I didnt like it and I quarreled with them to give back that to me. So I was somewhat like a terrorist to them. But I made them miss me at home in my absence and won their heart during my college days. They wondered that there was a tremendous change in my attitude. An autograph had a major role in change of my attitude.

I was in girls guide when i was in X std. I had participated in world tamil conference procession. Then when in XI was participated the diamond jublee celebrarions of guide and scouts. Meanwhile my dad was learning new technology in his field. Colour film processing and he taught me also. So i was helping him in colour printing. My dad wished to make me as doctor but i was so scared of dead bodies and darkness. So i refused to do so. Then we both come to a compromise that if i get marks above 400 I ve to study science group in +2 otherwise I would join polytecnic. When we had been to recieve marks card for Xth I asked my classmate who was class first and what was the mark. she told some name and it was around 389. So i told my dad mine would be less than that but to my surprise i was the class first and got above 400. So joined science group.

I did all my schoolings in Tamil medium. So I ve the inferiority complex when see the English medium students. That made me to continue my +2 also in Tamil medium. I passed out that with 72% so I could not study medicine to fulfil my dad's wish :(

I had two close friends in +2. One was Vijaya kumari and another one was ponniyin selvi. We three go together everywhere. After +2 Viji was doing nursing and ponni was at home. I had chance to meet them only once after my school. I dont know where they are now :(

My uncle is the another imp person. He came to work with my father at a young age and my dad got him married to my aunt. So he has become a member of our family. He is showing so much gratitude towards my dad and he loves us his children. I enjoyed the holidays at their home. He used to get books from library for me to read. I read books during day times and we would go for movie in the evenings. I happened to read novels of Ramanichandran that time and ve become fan of her novels. Still now I am die hard fan of her and I ve good collections of her novels.

I happened to meet some relatives for first time when i was in XIth. They are my dad's uncle family in coimbatore. So I ve visited them with my brothers in XIth holidays and become close with them.

My dad had started a new business in Palani so again he had shifted to Palani with my sisters and mom and I with my brothers continued our studies in Madurai since we were facing the board exams. So that time only my grandma allowed me to wear my uniform skirts and shoes from home, otherwise I had to wear half saree from home and carry the skirts, shirt and shoes to school and change there. I was fed up of that. Finally i was relieved of that :)

We joined our parents after that year and started my college life in Palani.

My Childhood with grand parents

I had a happy childhood.

First let me tell about my grandparents. I dont ve paternal grandparents but i ve two maternal grandpartents. confusing? My mom was adapted by her great uncle and aunty since they didnt ve any child so I had two.

Just a week before my birth, my grandfather was seriously ill and was in the hospital. At that time an astrologer came to our house and he told my grandma that the grandpa will be alright if my mom delivers a girl baby and he told for sure that they would ve a girl baby and he stayed there till my birth. So I was most expected child :). My grandma used to praise me often that I was the one who saved my grandpa's life.

Though I know I did nothing I used to be proud about it. But I used to get scolding from my grandma later for the same is a different story :)

I was so adamant and possessive. I ll just give an example for my adamancy which i heard from my grandma, we were living in palani and visit my grandparents in madurai. We ve to walk a kilometer to home from the bus stop. During one such visit my mom's adapted father and her grandfather came to recieve us halfway. I was around 3 years old i think, my mom's grandfather carried me home. I was crying all the way and as soon as we reached home i told my grandfather he should only carried me home and again they took back me to the same place and he carried me back.

Paniyaram is one of my favourite dishes. So whenever they visit us or we visit them grandma used to make it for me. Grandpa lost his eye sight due to cataract but he was so scared to undergo surgery for that and he lived his rest of the life with out eye sight. They took care of their expenses from the house rent. They had quarrels on sharing the rent often. Grandpa was so careful in keeping his money. Though he couldnt see he used to scale the size of the note and could identify the denomination. He was stingy for my grandma but for us he used to spend money for our evening snacks. He demanded my grandma to make special dishes for us during our visits. He showered his love the same way even after I became a mother till his death.

Since he couldnt see he kept on nagging my grandma for even simple things and which irritated her so much since she was also getting older. He lived for nearly 85 years. So grandma got irritated and used to tell me that I was the reason for that :)

The place where my grandparents lived was outskirts that time, now it has become small township. Those days the grandparents' houses was sourrounded by agricultural lands and they had the pumpsets and it is close to river Vaigai. During holidays, I join the gang of my mom's siblings and cousins and we roamed around that area. I should tell about my mom's siblings, she has 6 sisters, 3 brothers and around 9 cousins. Out of these 7 or 8 are of my age group. Me and my brothers join with them to form a group of 10. They used to go to the pumpset to take bath but my grandma wouldnot allow us because she was afraid that we may fall into the well. At that young age we thought that as an adventure and without her knowledge we went with them to bath. But there was no permission to go to river for bath but we used to go there also had after that we applied sand on our face to show that we didnt ve bath to cheat people at home :). The soil in that area was clay so we used to make utensils out of it and play. My uncle is good in creating cart, bulls, cars out of it. I enjoyed those days. I pity for my children that they didnt ve such an experience. My son is sticked to tv and computer games.

Taking oil bath on fridays was a terror to me. I could not forget one such friday. I had finished my fourth standard and was in Madurai for summer holidays. I was having thick and curly hair. As usual our gang went out and we decided to take bath in the river that day. We came back to my mom's parents house after bath. My grandma and aunty asked me to take oil bath and I started crying telling I had bath already but my maternal grandpa told he would give me bath and he gave me oil bath. Then he left for his work. He was around 45 i think. He was in night shift too, so he came back for supper. Since our gang was involved in our own activities we didnt see him then. On the way back to work he met with an accident and he died. :(( They had brought his body the next day morning. I was so afraid to see a dead body and didnt even go near his coffin. My cousin took me there and asked me to look at him.

So the whole responsiblity was on my grandma. She was not educated and had only two houses which got her rent and three cows. One uncle had finished his PUC and was helping my father in the studio and another one was studying his degree. So she managed on her own to upbring all the children. She got them all married and all are well settled in life now. She is a very good cook. I like her pickles very much. Now she is in her last days. She needs somebody's help to even to stand. Even then, when i visited her 10 days back she was telling she could make some pickles for me. Such a nice grandma.

I cant finish this episode without telling about my great grandmother, my mom's paternal grandmother. She was very intelligent though not educated. She judged people correctly. She imitates, mimics and criticize peoples. It is very difficult to get good name from her. But somehow i got that from her, 'Vashistar vayal brahmmarishi' :)

I ll continue my childhood with my parents in another episode