Losing something is okay. Yeah, at least most of the times! But
losing someone is not so okay ever! Now ‘losing’ here is nowhere close to being
dead but literally someone being lost. And if that lost person happens to be
your 94-year old grandpa who is visiting you, you can be sure you are in for
one hell-off-a-ride and some sound yelling too.
But then reminiscing about the incident (once the old man
was found safe & sound), is a lot of good enough. It does bring back a lot
of fond memories and of course crazy laughs.
Back in 2004, my grand old grandparents visited us in Mumbai.
Grandpa young at 94 believed in living his life to the fullest and grandma at
86, was happy to munch on her paan and pray the whole day long. Having lost my
real grandparents a short while ago, having them over was truly fun. Now the
pair had been married for over 65 years, borne eight children of which only
three survived and fortunately, were hale and hearty apart from old age!
My cousin brother, manu (my brat sister) and I were
practically always together – getting into mischief or planning something
wicked. One evening while we chatted in
the building garden, Pishi (father’s sister) called us from our 1st
floor flat to inform us that Dadu wished to go for a walk.
While he was quite capable of doing so all by himself,
grandma did not entirely trust him and so we were to accompany him. We agreed
and waited for the old man to step down. Soon we were deeply engrossed in some
argument and completely missed the old man walking out of the gate.
Pishi called out to us a while later and enquired about her
father. To this we claimed we were still waiting for him to come down. Horrified,
she exclaimed that he left a good thirty minutes back. Laughing it off, we told
her to go look if he hadn’t dozed off in the living room or close by as we were
right next to the gate and couldn’t have missed him.
But she was right. He had left long back and the watchman
confirmed the bad news as well. However, we thought he’d be back in about
five-ten minutes. But no sign of him for another 30 minutes got us a lot of
yelling in Bengali.
Grandma – “Kothai more pore ache…nischoi (must have fallen
dead somewhere for sure!)
Pishi – “Kono gutter-e- pore geche…dekhe eisho!” (Check the
ditches if he might have tripped into any)
We had panicked too by now. So we three set out as a search
party. Yes, we checked all the ditches in the vicinity. Questioned all
auto-wallahs and shopkeepers if they had seen an old man walk by! Nada. Bah. We
rushed to the nearby garden to check if anyone had seen him there. By now we
were getting curious looks and one aunty even managed to retort – “ek buddhe
aadmi ko ghum kar diya? Nahi sambhaal paye?” (You couldn’t look after one old
man? Lost him?)
Darkness descended and we were shitting bricks. Manu spotted
mom near the building entrance and ran towards her. Now it also happened to
coincide with us wanting to sell our old home. This meant that we had
prospective buyers coming to meet my folks daily. Mom happened to be talking to
one of them when Manu announced – “Dadu is lost…”
For a second mom couldn’t registered and waved her aside but
Manu (very stupid) repeated the same thing again and again until my mom
understood the real situation! By now dada and I had reached home as well. The buyer,
gaging our problem, offered to come later.
Mom – “what people must be thinking of me? Old parents come
for a few days and the daughter-in-law harasses them so much that one goes
missing!”
Sigh, by now the drama had obviously begun. While we
continued our search mission, it struck us that dad would be home soon and we
of course would be dead on having lost an old frail man! How could we have
missed him?
So we made dada call up papa. He somehow managed to ask him
how much longer he was going to take to get home. While dada tried to sound
brave, papa asked why? Was Dadu okay? Freaking out, he cut the call short. It
had been three hours now since Dadu had gone missing. Enough for mom to decide
that she wanted to file a missing person’s report! With a heavy heart (more so because
she would have to answer my father first…) she left the house. But then
miraculously our dear old grandpa was waiting downstairs on the swing! Heaving
huge sighs of relief, ma asked him where he had been for so long and if he were
alright.
He was truly lost. He had decided to take walk down the same
route he used to accompany my grandfather. But he missed a turned and continued
to walk for an hour. He reached a toll where the guard realised that he might
have been lost. So this kind man offered to drop him home and luckily the old
man remembered the address!
So all was well or so we thought! Pishi was happy to see her
father alive but grandma not so! She was truly pissed. Highly embarrassed too
to have put us through so much trouble! And all this while her prayers had been
wasted on him…she had confirmed he was dead. It was her gut feeling she told
us. So this was rubbished and the old lady felt jilted.
While we danced around him in glee, he narrated the entire
story and boy, did we feel proud of him!
Grandma – ‘bedhe rakho eke…nijhe ke chhada goru babhche!” (Tie up him…thinks of himself as cattle)
Pishi – ‘baba arr
tumi kothai jabe na’ (Father you are not going anywhere from now on!)
Grandma – ‘Kichu khete diyo na…bedhe rakho. Abar paliye
jaabe!’ (Don’t feed him. Tie him else he will run away again!)
Soon papa came home but then we had nothing to worry about, did
we?
Hehehe! Awesome post! I loved it! :D :D This happened to me once too..sis and I were alone at home (we were very young!) and mom had gone to buy some stuff from the market. That time there were no cell-phones, so we had no idea when she would return. It was late evening and no sign of her...we were bawling hysterically! I even told sister "Don't worry..God will bring her back!" with tears..We were stuck to the window! Then 5 mins later we saw her coming back! What relief!
ReplyDeleteAgain, loved the post! :D Muaahh!
@ Iggy
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed this! Yes, I think we all suffered from this silly paranoia about being left all alone! I like the god bit though... hehehe!
nice post
ReplyDeletejust one simple correction
... he had remembered the diary in our area and wanted to go.....
i guess u mean Dairy instead of diary to make sense of the statement.
:)
like my friend says past is always good as v have crossed it..the agony when he was away must hve been like lying on a bed of thorns..now that it's all over v feel relieved..anywy happy ending is a great ending..what say?
ReplyDelete@ Mihir
ReplyDeleteThank you and yes! I changed the word! Thanks again.
@ R. Ramesh
A happy ending is all what we need! Yes indeed it was amazing that he came back safe and sound!
ahh the bangla infused post!
ReplyDelete"...my mum started to babble incoherently and rushed to throw her bag, and join the old man hunt.." the old man :) was young to begin with... harateh hole ki buro hoteh hoy..
but then as robi thakur had said.. jodi tor dakh sune keu naa ashe.. tobe ekla cholo re..
@ der Bergwind
ReplyDeleteHey! Yeah..thats a little insight into my bong cum gujju life!
yes i've heard this from you that day when u'd come over to my place......i was rolling on floors ....wat fun...love u sweets muaahs :))
ReplyDeletelol! glad that he came back home safely.
ReplyDeleteand I completely agree with Ramesh.
-I
@ Impressionist
ReplyDeleteHey! Yes I second that too!
Once me and younger-bro missed the tonga that used to bring us back to home.We decided to walk our way and of course got lost. Mom was in tears for hours until one of many neighbours on search found us.
ReplyDeleteWe had a grand homecoming that day and mom cooked our favorite food :).
@ Brown Phantom
ReplyDeleteHello! Your poor mum! And lucky you guys! lolz. Thanks for dropping by!
LoL!! That was sho shweeeeet!!! Its so nice to have grandparents around. I wish i had the fortune of having spent such time with mine...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, seems like you and Dadu were great pals... *Touch Wood*
Twas a pleasure reading this one...
Ashen
@ Ashen Glow
ReplyDeleteHey! Thanks a lot! Yes...I have some fond memories! "Touch Wood"
A nice one. I can say nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. I will be back for more.
ReplyDeleteI have not had the fortune to go missing for a while,after the one time when I was 3-4 years old and rode my tricycle away :P
ReplyDeletenice post by the way
Cheers,
Sharad
Medley
Can imagine the daughter in law angle hehe.. Beautifully written nikki!.. Im sure your Dadu is a wonder!
ReplyDeleteBack to reading and commenting on blogs after ages... first off thank you for the lovely comment you left behind on my blog..
ReplyDeleteThis was a really fun post..could identify with most..being a bengali it was a treat... :)
great writing there..i will keep coming back...
hmhm.. that was quite a nostalgic read. Brings back some warm memories. :)
ReplyDeletenikki..am unable to reach yr blog yar...struggling as i dont understand this new google system..advise...
ReplyDeleteIshh Dadoor ki kirtee :-) And Didima pronouncing him dead was hilarious!
ReplyDelete@ Human Observer
ReplyDeleteTrue. Some memories enrich our lives.
@ Mike M
Do keep visiting!
@ Sharad Sharma
Woah...don't go missing. It is not a great feeling for people who 'miss' you!
@ CHLU
ReplyDeleteOh he was a wonder indeed!
@ Phoenix
Thank you! :)
@ Muthu
ReplyDeleteThank you. What would we do without memories? :)
@ Purba
Oh yeah...hehee!