Memories - the February chapter

documenting fond and fun memories so i don't lose them.. and of course, to make space for new ones. 

Feb 1st - eight years ago on this day. i married bobo.. at pune.. surprisingly, i have not one extra-ordinarily happy moment from that day.. but we had a nice time hanging out on the terrace by ourselves that week we stayed at his place.

Feb 2nd: today's memory is of school days in pune.. all the neighbourhood children would walk from our homes to the school and back.. chatting in our loud voices.. being mindful not to step onto the road.. and we'd pass by a small patch of cactus on the way.. and walk over brown beans from trees, that we believed went into making cricket balls. they had a weird smell i can recognize to this day.

Feb 3rd: contd. my round lunch box had a pink top and a white bottom.. my brother had one with a white top and green bottom. mine was prettier.. lunch was usually rolled chapati with butter and sugar.. or biscuits... or bread with butter and sugar.

Feb 4th: today's happy memory is of pune again.. when i was in 2nd standard.. and bombay mama - mom's elder brother who lived and worked in bombay - visited us yet again. he took me and my brother out to eat rasgulla at a hotel.. we were both seated facing mama.. and got two rasgulla in a white saucer for each of us. they were delicious and he asked if we wanted more. brother refused.. i nodded a yes.. the second serving was too much to eat.. i have held on to this memory over the years.

Feb 5th: bombay mama was tall, fair and quite good looking with curly hair and a gentle manner... he contracted covid and passed away.. and the villagers refused to let him be buried in the village premises.. they were terrified.. after a lot of argument, he was buried at the outskirts far away from the village. he was a good man who lost his way.

Feb 6th: today's memory is of a neighbourhood kid in pune, who fell from a tree and broke his right fore-arm... he held his right wrist in his left palm and the rest of his fore-arm hung in a u-shape and looked very thin.

Feb 7th: today's happy memory is of pune again.. we lived in a huge bungalow that had an expansive garden in front.. mum grew lady's finger, tomatoes and brinjals in it. we also had a drumstick tree on the side of the house. the brinjals had thorns on them and i always pricked my fingers trying to get them.. and mum would give us tender lady's finger to eat raw.. biting into their seeds was weirdly addictive.. you had to put the right amount of pressure to pop them.

Feb 8th: today's memory is as painful as it is funny... i was a child in jhansi.. and it was diwali.. we were all bursting crackers. i was heading out holding a cracker in one hand and a candle in the another when mom asked me to take a diya along.. and place it on the window sill outside. so i transferred the candle to my other hand and picked the diya.. once outside, there was a breeze.. and the flame of the candle danced around and lit the cracker in my hand while i was totally focussed on placing the diya... the cracker burst right in front of my face... the sound was deafening.. and the blindness.. omg! i was staring at darkness for what seemed like hours.. i was terrified.. and speechless... and blind! the vision came back in stages.. but that was one of the  scariest experiences of my life!

Feb 9th: this happy memory is from junior KG in Pune. our teachers would stick gold and silver paper-cut stars on our homework if we did it well... once home, mom would go through our notebooks and she'd be so proud and happy to find stars in them

Feb 10th: contd. once, my homework was to draw a sunflower and there wasn't enough time for mom to make me do it. so she drew a beautiful big sunflower in my notebook, with a hundred thin petals and coloured them yellow with a brown centre. the teacher wrote "very good" against it and told me to tell my mom that she had drawn the flower very well. and i remembered to tell her that!

Feb 11th: this is a fun memory of when we were little.. and we and all the neighbourhood children believed that when a parrot bites a guava, it turns pink inside. those guavas that had white flesh were the ones the parrots hadn't touched.

Feb 12th: today's memory is of the tiny liquor bottles displayed in the showcase in jhansi... the showcase had a plastic acting as a cover instead of glass. so many times i took a sip and replaced water in the bottles, being careful to only sip out of fully transparent liquids and leave the brown and red coloured ones alone.

Feb 13th: after my 3rd std, we moved from pune that had black soil to jhansi with red soil.. and lived in an area called plassey lines. the kids there told us that the soil had turned red from all the blood that was spilled in the battle of plassey.. and we - my brother and i - totally believed it.. and told others too.

Feb 14th: a recent memory from pune... we were all sitting on a double-bed chatting.. i had my back to bobo's granny who we call 'aai'.. and she began caressing my back.. i felt so loved! 

Feb 15th: another recent memory from pune.. about a year ago, we met harsh, bobo's extremely shy nephew.. once he took a liking to me, he named me 'little mami'.. all on his own! i love that name so much!

Feb 16th: today's memory is of this beautiful baby named netra born to our neighbour.. my brother nicknamed her "tinnu" because he thought she was so tiny, the day we went to see her when her parents brought her home.. her eyes were a sparkling green when she was born.. her soft hair were light brown.. she was fair as fair can be.. and she was the most delightful baby ever and luckily for me, she got quite fond of me. overtime her eyes turned light-brown.. and sadly her parents had to move away.

Feb 17th: contd... i came to love and regard the most beautiful tinnu as my lucky person.. and each time i had to take an exam at college, i would stop by her place and see her for a few minutes.

Feb 18th: today's memory is of another neighbour in koppal had two rabbits as pets.. my brother and i went often to play with them.. they had big, beautiful pink eyes.. the rabbits got very active later in the evening.. whenever there was a power cut in the evenings, we'd make a beeline to their home to watch their glow-in-the-dark eyes as they hopped around

Feb 19th: this day is the anniversary of me joining work... this was undoubtedly the happiest day in my life and in the lives of my dad and mom. our dreams came true this day and my parents continued to celebrate this day for many many years!

Feb 20th: when i started working, mom gave me her wrist-watch from the 70s. i wore it to work everyday and didn't think much of it till a colleague made fun of it. a good friend at work took offence and the same evening, bought me a very expensive watch from titan in indiranagar... flabbergasted was what i felt that day... and very happy because the new watch was so pretty and delicate. my mom wears it now.

Feb 21st: contd. from yesterday's memory... i could never really shake the happiness i had felt receiving such an expensive gift.. so when bobo had to go to hongkong for a few years, i took him to the same outlet and bought him a very expensive watch... he was over the moon and still has fond memories of it.

Feb 22nd: today joyful memory is of the day Sripati mama came to visit me at work.. i had just about started working at tata infotech in indiranagar 80 ft road.. and sripati mama, an extrememly dear family friend of ours.. who i hadn't seen since my 3rd standard.. showed up around lunch hour. i had worn my pink lucknowi churidhar and had forgotten to put on my pearl button earrings.. i remember because i worried about it around him.. we talked for a while in the conference room at the reception and then he took me to shanti sagar on cmh road for lunch... ordered their biggest thali for me though i vehemently tried to stop him.. dropped me back and left. this memory makes me so happy!

Feb 23rd: 9 years ago, dad passed away on this day

Feb 24th: when dad was hospitalised and i was trying very hard to arrange for the blood he needed for transfusion.. when i told this to a colleague, v.s joshi, who called up randomly to check on me.. he told me he had cousins there who could help.. sure enough they showed up and helped me get everything i needed from a nearby blood-bank. they were god-sent.. and i truly regret losing touch with the said colleague

Feb 25th: another gratitude-filled memory is of a colleague sucheta full of grace.. one early morning i dropped a cup of coffee at the door when trying to swipe my ID.. and panicked with embarassment.. sucheta kept her cool.. told me to relax.. and calmly went to fetch a housekeeper. i ran around and cleared up the mess with a bunch of tissues and worried about more colleagues coming in and thinking less of me when they saw what had happened... sucheta arrived with the housekeeper and told me it wasn't a big deal at all. she even offered to go get another cup of coffee!

Feb 26th: today's memory is of a HR who wrote 'negotiable' against my date-of-birth instead of against salary, when she talked to me about a job opening... later when i got hired, my colleagues teased me no end by calling me 'the girl with a negotiable date-of-birth'. 

Feb 27th: this memory is of my first visit to bannerghatta park. it was time to close and park officials were going around shooing everyone out. a very young couple, speaking in kannada, were right ahead of me.. the lady was mesmerized by the white peacocks that were dancing right then and the guy was trying to hurry her up.. the lady tried to slow him down saying 'look at these peacocks.. look how they're white in colour'.. the guy replied 'their colour's faded.. being in the sun all day' and continued to hurry her along. amazing presence of mind.. and hilarious reasoning

Feb 28th: today's memory is a fun one... back in 2013, an american colleague Joanna offered to drive me and another indian colleague to look around boston. we were visiting USA from India for work... on our way back, i accidentally left my digital camera on top of the car and got in.. the collegue who was driving was baffled at other drivers honking at her.. till someone passed us by and pointed to the car roof.. so she pulled over to see.. and we all had a good laugh, though i was thoroughly embarassed.

Feb 29th: today's memory is a weird one.. a good friend and a colleague who got pancreatic stones removed surgically.. showed me a photograph afterwards of the stones.. he thought i'd be the only crazy in this world who'd be interested in seeing what they looked like.. sure enough, i was beyond amazed and thanked him for being so thoughtful!