Memories

I started creating you right when I was a baby
and you’ve stayed with me always unless when I’m asleep, maybe.
You come in all flavours.. Sweet, sour, bitter
Some of you are fleeting, while some of you are bigger.

Dear memories you do love to play hide and seek.

Sometimes I need to dig you out and sometimes you refuse to leave.
That time when the teacher questioned me, and again in the exam hall
When I looked for you desperately where were you all?
Then I had my heart broken and I wanted you all gone
but you didn’t move an inch, you stubbornly stayed on!
Ah memories!

Then I saw my grandma when Alzheimer’s struck.


I watched her forget …
the children she’d nurtured, the home she’d made.
Like a baby, yet not one, she forgot to eat and to dress.
One minute she’d hug you, next she’d look through
and then she’d ask.. Little girl, who are you?

I watched my Dad’s heartbreak and my mum’s helplessness
as they fed her and bathed her and took her for a walk.
Sometimes they’d simply sit and listen to her talk.

I watched as she fought to get a grasp of you
but you remained elusive.
You’d come in flashes and then disappear

Just in reach yet just not there.
Now I know you are priceless
Good, bad, ugly, beautiful, sad, happy
every bit of you is to be cherished 
for every bit of you 
has a bit of me.
Note: I started this off as a fun thing because I had no clue what to write for today’s prompt, Memory. And then as I went on I remembered my grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s. She was the sweetest, most uncomplicated, most affectionate lady ever. And I realised how precious memories were, all of them, and how lost we’d be without them.. even the bad ones.
Thank you Write Tribe.. And yes I’m in.
Linking….

For some great takes on ‘Memory’, go here. And if you’ don’t know what I’m talking about and are looking for more details on this amazing Festival of Words go here.

Blog-a-prompt Day 6 – No

No? What’s No?
 
Meet my nephew, all of 6, who doesn’t understand the meaning of ‘No’
even if he’s told again…

…and again…

….and again….

….and again…

….and yet again.

A Happy Day

The kids and I spent a happy-in-a-daze kind of day for reasons nothing if not simplistic.

For the kids it was their cycles. Their bicycles, that had been languishing for some two years, suddenly became their most prized possessions which they hadn’t been ‘able to ride’ only because we (The Husband and I) hadn’t got air filled in the tyres. The shop is a fair distance away, a tad too far for me to wheel the cycles over. All of last week the kids whined and whined and whined, what with them being home 24X7 (we’re still in the Diwali vacations.. sigh!). They drove me up the wall till I dreamt of carrying two cycles on my shoulders and flying like Hanuman to the repair shop.

Meanwhile The Husband was blissfully at work, coming home with barely any time to bear the brunt of the complaining. Then came the weekend and Hah he was so caught. The cycles were loaded in his car and dropped off. We decided to get tubeless tyres so no more filling air in the tyres. Monday went by in a fresh haze of whines. Yesterday, while the kids were at a birthday party The Husband came home gulped down his tea and rushed out to the cycle shop. This was unusual to say the least. tearing him away from the tele after work is … well it just doesn’t happen, ever.

Are you thinking he did it to put a smile on the kids’ faces? Wrong. It was pure, unadulterated fear. The fear of putting up with two whiny voices with the unlimited capacity to go on. “What if the shop shuts,” he said with a shudder before dashing out. By evening the cycles were home to the absolute thrill of the kids. They’ve been on them ever since.

Now for my story. Before I begin if you’re even mildly the tech savvy types look for the cross in the red box at the top right hand corner of the page, click it and begone. If you’re still here read on…

A man called Santosh called from airtel yesterday morning offering some kind of a plan. Normally I disconnect with a polite ‘thank you’ but yesterday he caught my attention. I then agreed to try the package. As a result I got the browser activated on my BB. Now I know that’s no big deal for most people. However, for me, each small step in the techworld is the biggest of achievements. I spent the day happily downloading/installing stuff.. all kinds of themes, ringtones,wallpapers, messengers.. the works. I found loads of freinds on whatsapp. Oh it’s so much fun.

I just hope I don’t run up a huge bill at the month end. In any case I’ve alerted The Husband to the possibility. What with his parents being here he’s sure to be in a frame of mind to overlook much of what I do. Yay!

That’s how two cycles and a browser-on-the-phone made for a very happy household. (If you think I left out The Husband.. wrong — when the kids and I are at peace — he’s a happy man.. so there)
**********

Something totally unrelated to the above post… firstcry.com is stalking me. I swear they are. I ordered some stuff from them and they were good. Delivered the very next day and I put them high up on that pedestal which until now had just flipkart. Just as I was beginning to sing their praises to all and sundry I realised they were stalking me. Each time I log on there they are flashing all the products I looked at. I open blogger, they’re there. I comment on ANY blogpost there’s the ad at the bottom of the page. I go to facebook, they’re there. I open mail and there they are. They’re everywhere. If anyone knows how to stop this, help me please.

Leave me alone firstcry. I know where to find you. I’ll get there when I need you.

Other than that I’ve been pretty much enjoying netshopping. I’ll put up pictures of some of the stuff as it gets in.

Jubilation!

My cousin and nephew celebrate after ‘conquering’ China Peak in Nainital
at a height of 2615 metres. In the backdrop you have The Himalayas.
The rest of us chose to stroll along the Mall Road.

Linking to Thursday Challenge.
“FEELINGS” (Love, Hate, Sadness, Anger, Joy, Contentment,…)