Let's continue....
My family has a story too !
Friends, you know that every family has a story and you also know that my family has a story too ( of course you don't , that is why I am telling you 😀😀😀! ) ! In fact, in my last post , you read that my grandma's brother brought her to our homeland. Thank you for reading that part. Now let's go ahead. This time, I am extending the story of my grandmother.
My Courageous Grandmother
The very first thing I tell you about her is , she had no happiness in her whole life. Still she fought her way bravely. She had the courage to tolerate every bad incident. She was very simple in nature. Very kind ! At the same time, she was firm too ! As you read in the previous story of my grandfather, my grandmother's brother brought her and my father from Mumbai to our homeland. There she lived in her brother's house. She was hard worker and her relatives gave her work to water the mango plants in the jungle 02 kms away from the home in the hilly area. She had no option but to do that. It looks now that she had accepted it as a challenge . She was used to start her daily journey to go to the jungle at around 05.30 in the morning and water the plants within 2-3 hours. There were no wall clocks or wrist watches to see the exact time. Those people generally waking up early in the morning. Once my grandmother woke up too early in the midnight and started to walk towards the jungle in the moonlight. She thought it was dawn and the sun will rise until she reaches near the plants as usual . But when she reached there, the moon was still in the sky ! There was no sign of sun rising anywhere ! She waited for sometime but the sun didn't come out ! Now she realised that something was wrong ! She thought that she had misjudged the time and came in the jungle probably in the midnight ! She was alone in the jungle. She was frightened and thought that it was dangerous to stay there. So she started the return journey to home. She anyhow reached home safely. That day she slept for a while and after she saw the sunlight in the sky, she woke up, refreshed herself and started once again towards the jungle. Then afterwards she never misjudged the time ! When I was a school boy, we had the wall clock, which she couldn't read ! As a Childish behavior, I tested her accuracy regarding time. Many times she was almost correct in telling the time by reading the shadow of sunlight ! It became a game between us. There were no mobiles, no internet and no online games in our childhood , but we have grandmother who could tell us the time by just looking at the sunlight or even the moonlight in the front yard or the backyard, as the case may be.
A widow's life :
My grandmother was now living a widow's life in a village. It was never easy at that time to live the life of a widow . Again, she had a responsibility. She had to bring up her son. Her son ( my father) was very naughty and his cousins were also naughty. Not only the cousins, but also his friends were very very mischievous. Her trouble increased when my father started to go to school. Days were never good for my grandmother, but my father's acts made her life more difficult. His cousins and friends were also not made for the education and many of them left the school in just 3rd or 4th standard ! When my father was in 5th standard, he didn't go to school for three consecutive days and as a result he didn't do his homework at all. The day he reached the school, the teacher broke his one fingure as a punishment. At that time, the teachers were the final authority and such punishments were very usual. Of course, my grandmother didn't go to ask about the hard punishment and from that day my father didn't go either to school for learning ! At last, he was officially given the school leaving certificate which he took and kept with him. One thing was in his nature. He kept every paper he got in his life ! Even now I have kept that historic school leaving certificate with me ! The last remark on the school leaving certificate is interesting , which reads , stayed at home, hence deregistered . That was in May, 1937.
Living on her own
Oh, I almost walked into my father's story ! Let's continue with my grandmother ! As you know until now that my grandmother was an hard working lady. She wanted to live on her own and started to do so. She had to water the mango plants. That was not the only work she was doing. She was daily cutting the woods in the jungle, bringing the woods at home , using them to cook the food and also selling some woods to the rich people in the village. Her financial condition was very poor. Not only her condition was poor, but the poverty was everywhere around her ! There was no jobs in the village and the nearing city had not developed enough to give job to everyone. As such, she was surviving anyhow. It was really tough time for her. Unfortunately, her tough time continued....
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