Grand Pa
This poem is tribute to my Grand Pa.
The older I grow
Memories of my remote past, childhood,
Haunt me the more.
Now a Grand Pa myself,
Grand children faraway,
Flashing here once or twice a year
Like lightning in the rainy season.
Think of the awe-inspiring
Mahogany tree-trunk —six feet tall —
In his seventies.
Taking care of me was a routine for him;
Gave oil-massage to my body
A skeleton then, I am told,
And dragged me naked to the village pond,
And washed my body clean to his satisfaction.
Winter or summer was not his concern.
Gave naughty comments once or twice
On my precocious male organ
Amid the co-bathers on the bathing steps
That blushed and embarrassed me a greatdeal.
Blew hot and cold often ;had dismissed
A servant for his negligible negligence,
And cajoled him back to work with a higher pay
For having saved my life
From sure death by drowning,
In a ditch near my school
To which I have gone, alone,
To collect ripe water-hyacinth,
For cleaning my slate.
I can’t tell you now, how old I was then,
Four or five or six or seven.
Had made me memorize and recite
“Shlokas” in Sanskrit —which I recited on demand,
And earned an “anaa” or two as prize,
From eager listeners nearby.
My Grand Pa’s heart swelled with pride —
And mother became richer by it.
So afraid of him was I that
I obeyed his commands at once
For fear of being punished
which he never did.
Judged him rough and tough from
What, and how he shouted at my poor Grand Ma,
Who never answered back
But vanished from his sight
Turning her back on him
Mumbling something-God knows what.
Wondered if he had ever loved her;
But to my utter disbelief,
He cried like a helpless child lost in wilderness,
When Grand Ma died of cholera,
Within hours, under the very nose
Of the best doctor of my near-by town.
Little did I know
That the heart that swelled often with pride
For all his grandchildren– may be a dozen then
(of his four sons and two daughters)
would one night swell so much
To burst into pieces in seconds;
A few seconds’ violent pain in his chest,
Father’s oil-massage on it,
An “ah” - and Grand Pa was all gone,
Leaving me sad, shocked and lonely.
Now a Grand Pa my-self —body and mind
Decaying and dying bit by bit, day after day;
I envy the sort of death he died.
Bothering none burdening none
Walking like a knight, till his last night,
Before going to bed at nine.
(2014)
An "anaa" was one-sixteenth of a rupee in value
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