I lost my youngest Masi (Mother's sister) this Saturday, she was just 3 years older than my Mom.
One of these occasions i.e. when someone dies, that I used to think that the phrase "Boys don't cry" holds true but when I experienced that its not, I graduated this phrase to "Men's don't cry" and incidentally this also doesn't hold true.
My Masi was one of the most feared(only by adults) member of our family because of her shrewd nature.
My earliest memory of her goes back to the time when I was studying in school and every year we used to spend a week or at max a month of our summer holidays at Kolkata. As me ,my cousin brother and my sister were the trioka of children in the same age group with me being one year younger to my cousin and my cousin being one year younger to my sister and with our Mama and other Masi's also staying nearby , it was the most choicest destination to spend our vacations.Those times were fun for us but we sure did gave her a horrid time .
Once we went to visit Nicco Park taking her office car and after having fun there , we sheepishly went to her office taking that car thinking since its almost time for her office to close, she will also come with us but the moment we entered her office , she went berserk seeing us and started shouting at my Meso (Mosaji, her husband), and we just didn't stop and ran all the way to the parking and started the car and ran home and I don't know how but she was home before us. She did not say anything to us but all the adults who were with us had to hear a lot.
Since she was so particular, whenever we used to go out for shopping or to eat out, she will always complain about the place, the quality of food , the hygiene and although we used to enjoy but my Mosaji used to have a torrid time.
Once she visited us at Faridabad and we went to pick her up at Delhi station and as they were visiting for few weeks so they were carrying a good amount of luggage so we decided to take a Coolie. Coolie's at the station generally are not so particular about wearing their uniforms and badges properly and the coolie we asked was not wearing his badge and the moment she noticed that , she asked him to immediately stop picking our luggage and gave him a scolding for not wearing the badge and said she won't hire someone without it. It was quite amusing to see the look on the coolie's face.
The drivers of the taxi's that we used to board in Kolkata (Kolkata has the concept of public metered taxi's, ambassador car) were not spared from her wrath. As most taxi drivers has the tendency of over charging but she will never pay a penny more than what the meter and the book says.
She was famous for her calls (in fact feared most) which usually used to last for an hour or two and during that time if you could utter anything other than Yes/No then that was considered an achievement. I was spared till most of my young years but once she got hold of my mobile number, I was also made attendee to her amusing tales.
Since the last few years things become really bad and we hardly used to meet or talk. We met in January this year after almost 8 years.
Although people feared her but whatever she was different, a person who used to lose temper and dissatisfied with everything but she was quite lovable, she loved us.
I just wished I could make her read all this.
I know things can't be changed but just wish she would have lived more. 56 is not an age to die in this modern world.
Will Miss You a lot.
I just turn into my worst in these kind of situations.
Firstly I become scared when something like this happen and then I talk to people who matter but at the same time since its such an emotional thing I feel by telling them I am using them emotionally and that makes me more sad...
But one thing I learned from her death, She was some way responsible for her own death and I think we all will be but she forgot that we are also responsible for our living, if we decide to live happily then no matter how unfavorable the conditions become we can still come out enjoying life.
Wish I could make her understand that.......
Now one more , the eldest of the Masi, is not keeping well and has been hospitalized. Although age is not at her side but still......This is one of the worst thing of growing old that your elders are also growing old :(
One of these occasions i.e. when someone dies, that I used to think that the phrase "Boys don't cry" holds true but when I experienced that its not, I graduated this phrase to "Men's don't cry" and incidentally this also doesn't hold true.
My Masi was one of the most feared(only by adults) member of our family because of her shrewd nature.
My earliest memory of her goes back to the time when I was studying in school and every year we used to spend a week or at max a month of our summer holidays at Kolkata. As me ,my cousin brother and my sister were the trioka of children in the same age group with me being one year younger to my cousin and my cousin being one year younger to my sister and with our Mama and other Masi's also staying nearby , it was the most choicest destination to spend our vacations.Those times were fun for us but we sure did gave her a horrid time .
Once we went to visit Nicco Park taking her office car and after having fun there , we sheepishly went to her office taking that car thinking since its almost time for her office to close, she will also come with us but the moment we entered her office , she went berserk seeing us and started shouting at my Meso (Mosaji, her husband), and we just didn't stop and ran all the way to the parking and started the car and ran home and I don't know how but she was home before us. She did not say anything to us but all the adults who were with us had to hear a lot.
Since she was so particular, whenever we used to go out for shopping or to eat out, she will always complain about the place, the quality of food , the hygiene and although we used to enjoy but my Mosaji used to have a torrid time.
Once she visited us at Faridabad and we went to pick her up at Delhi station and as they were visiting for few weeks so they were carrying a good amount of luggage so we decided to take a Coolie. Coolie's at the station generally are not so particular about wearing their uniforms and badges properly and the coolie we asked was not wearing his badge and the moment she noticed that , she asked him to immediately stop picking our luggage and gave him a scolding for not wearing the badge and said she won't hire someone without it. It was quite amusing to see the look on the coolie's face.
The drivers of the taxi's that we used to board in Kolkata (Kolkata has the concept of public metered taxi's, ambassador car) were not spared from her wrath. As most taxi drivers has the tendency of over charging but she will never pay a penny more than what the meter and the book says.
She was famous for her calls (in fact feared most) which usually used to last for an hour or two and during that time if you could utter anything other than Yes/No then that was considered an achievement. I was spared till most of my young years but once she got hold of my mobile number, I was also made attendee to her amusing tales.
Since the last few years things become really bad and we hardly used to meet or talk. We met in January this year after almost 8 years.
Although people feared her but whatever she was different, a person who used to lose temper and dissatisfied with everything but she was quite lovable, she loved us.
I just wished I could make her read all this.
I know things can't be changed but just wish she would have lived more. 56 is not an age to die in this modern world.
Will Miss You a lot.
I just turn into my worst in these kind of situations.
Firstly I become scared when something like this happen and then I talk to people who matter but at the same time since its such an emotional thing I feel by telling them I am using them emotionally and that makes me more sad...
But one thing I learned from her death, She was some way responsible for her own death and I think we all will be but she forgot that we are also responsible for our living, if we decide to live happily then no matter how unfavorable the conditions become we can still come out enjoying life.
Wish I could make her understand that.......
Now one more , the eldest of the Masi, is not keeping well and has been hospitalized. Although age is not at her side but still......This is one of the worst thing of growing old that your elders are also growing old :(
It's sad to hear about your Masi .From what you tell, she sounds intimidating.May be she could have been a bit easy about the relationships and life in general,but I loved to read about how particular she was about the proper-ness of things in general.Such people are rare.And they seem intimidating because we cannot match their standards..bur somehow , they remind people to raise their standards:)
ReplyDeletehmm...its sad :(..
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear the news...
ReplyDeleteThere are people who are stern outside but soft hearted inside. They are usually good people. I always respect them.
You know everybody is going to leave this place one day but it's still a mystery when will be this one day.