Nani was my first ‘pen friend’, a popular way to connect with like-minded people much before Facebook and Instagram stormed our lives. In Nani, I found a friend who was willing to share her life and love over a piece of inland letter. I must have been in secondary school when we devised our own method of staying in touch at a time when STD calls were a thing of luxury. Upon returning from school, I’d find a letter with a stamp from Bhopal waiting to be unfolded on my study.
Whenever Nani paid us a visit, she enthralled us with stories of her siblings and their children and even their grandchildren. So much so, she made sure that we remember her family tree for the rest of our lives! I didn’t hear much about her mother or father though from her. My mother, however, made some mention of her grandparents on rare occasions. The letter that arrived in the summer of 1994 was a cherished one.
Nani’s letter read,
“My dear Priya, Today I must share with you something we never talked about. You must wonder, where did Nani come from? My parents and your great-grandparents came from a humble background. Your great-grandfather was a supervisor in the Empress mill of Nagpur that manufactured textiles. Your great-grandmother was a fierce lady who ruled her home with an iron fist. In the era of 1920s, when I was still a young girl, we grew up in a huge household of six children.
My father had a reputation of being a man of modest needs. He wore crisp cotton kurtas and a Gandhi cap, a popular dressing style of those days. He was a man in love with his fields that his father had passed over to him as inheritance. The fields bore golden ears of wheat dangling on our lush green ranches. His fields were his gold mine. Of all sisters, he had me accompany him to the fields on Sundays. I would hold his hand and sit beside him in the tonga and enjoy the ride all the way to our farm. I was his favorite child; I suspect because I loved his fields as much as he did. On the way, we’d pass stretches of villages where people lived in thatched huts and cared for their cattle. It wasn’t uncommon in those days to pass vast farmlands where ladies and men could be seen tiling their lands with passion. Land was revered as a prized possession in that era. Once on the fields, father got down to surveying the crops and the supply of water and manure. I would run carefree across the wilderness, feeling the golden grain on the tip of my fingers. When it was sundown, the chaffs of wheat glistened, reflecting the last rays of the sun. That was time to head home in the tonga, seated next to my father, while he enthralled me with stories of how his father saved his crops from the fire that had engulfed Nagpur many decades back in 1889. We grew up eating the purest wheat from our own produce. Now you know why your Nani is round.
My mother lived her life with conscientiousness. For her, to raise six children within our humble means to become educated citizens was perhaps her biggest achievement. She wore the nine-yard saree which you don’t see often in popular dressing these days. In her advanced years, she took recourse to Buddhism to find solace. Mother was not literate, but she took up the task of becoming one when she signed up for the adult literacy program that the government ran those days. Not just that, she also gave the premises of our Nagpur home to run literacy classes for adults.
I remember my mother taking her grandkids out to Maharajabagh Zoo and museums during the summer holidays. Your mother tells me that she was a storyteller. I hope your mother told you the story behind how she became a doctor. My mother often told her, “Suchitra, we don’t have a doctor in the family. I don’t have many hopes from other children. You are the brightest one. You must study to become a doctor. And then you can treat me when I grow old.” Many years later, your mother fulfilled her dream. When you were born Priya, she held you tenderly in her palms, but by then she was a very old lady and had lost her perception. I don’t know if she recognized you.
I am enclosing a grand picture of my family with all of us. We look like a full class! It was shot in my paternal house. We are seated in the vast verandah at the center of our home. Our house was built in the ancient square pattern, where each of us had a room around the edge of the verandah and the verandah opened to open sky. Your great grandmother had the foresight to educate her daughters at a time when India was clutched in droughts and poverty. My education led to the progress of our family and your mother’s education led to the progress of your family. And I am hopeful that your education will put your family on the path to success in future.
Once in a while, it’s good to remember where we came from.
Love,
Nani.”
Many years later, I realize the veracity of what she wrote. Two of the biggest assets that can sail you far in life are the lands you own that will never let you run out of food on your table, and the education you acquire in your lifetime that will earn you your livelihood, besides respect.
About the book
This book is a tribute to Nani, her old-fashioned wisdom that she imprinted on my impressionable mind throughout her life and living. You will find a sneak peek into her childhood spent on farms, the love of her life whom she met in high school, a long-distance marriage across a thousand miles, and a profession that educated people about the healthy number of babies to make! Besides, you’ll also discover her quirks, passions, superpowers, the love that she showered on her family and the pets she nurtured. Nani carried a quintessential zest for life and became a beacon of light for her family and future generations through her simple yet extraordinary life. Now, I must bequeath to the next generation a treasure trove of her sapience – the secrets she whispered in my ears.
“People’s Kafe – The Secrets Granny Whispered in My Ears” is a kaleidoscopic ride into Nani’s life set in pre and post-independence India, right until Instagram stormed our lives. She led a life of purpose when the odds were stacked against her. Born into a humble family of six siblings in a heavily caste and gender-prejudiced society, much before India gained freedom, Nani shattered the unwritten glass ceiling by attaining a graduate degree, carving a career at the National Family Planning Commission of India, and following Ambedkar’s ideology of obliterating caste discrimination. Through her eyes, you will witness different periods of social and technological evolution within India. In an epoch when women were primarily homemakers, Nani led a life of her choice, choosing love, equality, and faith.
Out now on Amazon!
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