Wednesday, January 23, 2008

From Chakki with love

" How can you?"
"How can you agree to spend the rest of your life with a person after meeting him once and after talking to him for a few hours!"
"How can you! how can you ?how can you ? how can you.................................................................. ( raised eyebrows on all faces twisted into a question mark(?))

Sigh!!!!.............Its not easy explaining about the turning point in one's life....life which just meandered from one phase to the next through bends and curves but still kept flowing. To those who cannot digest the fact that arranged marriages work , I would suggest them to take a tour of this institution called marriage at least half a century ago.........................


She had not met him.She packed her bags and her dreams and climbed the huge vehicle , which would take her to her future ......a future she was yet to carve .....for she couldn't fit in many missing links........after all she had not met him. Her father had given her details of her future house hold, their family background.....but she had not met him . He ,who would be her better half, who would be her soul mate!

Finally she met him during their wedding ceremony which lasted for four days...and they set out on their journey together!

"They lived happily ever after" would end this story....but this is where they began ....raised three wonderful children, treasured their six grand children, doted on their three great grand children... and today they are entering their 60th year of life together! I dedicate this post to my Abu and Ammumma , my grandparents!

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


In those days my grandpa never used ink pens or fountain pens .. my grandpa used to dip the tip of a feather in a bottle of ink and use it instead of pen.I should be 2 or 3 yrs old. I was fascinated by the way he dipped the feather each time in the blue liquid , and how it formed patterns on paper... ! I made certain that grandpa was not noticing me and got hold of the blue ink bottle. The moment i threw it out of the porch I got the worst spanking I could ever remember.Grandpa's five fingers were etched on my teeny tiny thighs.....that day I learnt a lesson.....never to fool around my grandpa....

I must have been 3 years old....I was at my grand parents place...and my grandma was cooking steamed rice (putttu) .There was a special pot in which puttu was steamed and the small metal plate with holes which allowed steam to pass through the rice flour was missing! this round plate was called chakki. All were searching for chakki.
"hey, chakki is here !.. I shouted "and ammumma came running. She asked me where it was ... and I said pointing towards me .. "here is your chakki"
from that day I was their chakki.

If I pen down all the wonderful moments I spend with them...it would be hard to stop....
I am just so grateful for being blessed with these wonderful people as my grandparents....whose constant prayer for our well being has made us who we are!
Wishing them healthy and peaceful years together.....

chakki

21 comments:

Sum Raj said...

hello nanduakka, it would be really surprise for abu and ammumma when they read ur post and also will be very proud of u.....hugs to u nanaduakka ...u have written very well...

Pradeep Nair said...

I can fully understand the emotions behind this piece. Let me wish your grandparents happiness and peace on this great day! During the previous generation there was a unwritten commitment to make a relationship work. Today, you don't find lots of people having that commitment.

Mishmash ! said...

Such a sweet note! Wishing your grandparents happiness and health. I have seen people writing with feather dipped in ink only in movies....so he is a strict grandpa, eh :)

Bharathy said...

Another sweet post to speak about the imp of relationships! :)

Great to know about your moents with grandparents! :)

P.S-now I understand whom your little one takes after ;)

harimohan said...

nostalgia was dipped in the feather pen as you wrote this piece ,we could feel the imp of a chakki in the minds of your venerous grandparents .
wishing them all the best in this day of happiness for your family .
they look as ideal grandparents one could be blessed with

Li'l Lite said...

Wishing your grandparents happiness,health and peace!
They look cute :) felt good reading this post...

Cynthia said...

This is so touching. Please pass on my sincere wishes of continued long life, health and happiness to your grandparents. How blessed you are!

Susan said...

We should all be so lucky in love no matter how we meet our life partners! Congratulations on your grandparents' 60th.

P.S. - I want to go back and give little Nanditha a lollipop!

diyadear said...

hey.. nice post.. Is this the same ammamma who has a blog??

Anonymous said...

We can all understand the effect our parents & grand-parent leave on us, the way you have beautifully crafted the words...if they are reading it, they are surely going to become really emotional...we also wish them happy, healthy & peaceful years ahead!

AnandiMumbai said...

Dear chakki,

We both read your post again and again and felt very happy. It took us back to those days at our old house in the village. I liked the way you started the post "How can you"? My answer is "If you have faith, trust and determination, then you can". At that time (59 years back), the family and social circumstances were such that it was difficult to get an opportunity for the newly wed couples to speak in private. But instead of complaining for anything and everything, we faced the challenges in our own way, without hurting anybody's feelings. But that affected our peace of mind many times. But considering that happiness of people around would bring happiness to us', made us stronger to face the difficulties. In case of difficulties we supported each other, most times discretely. As any other newly wed couple we also had our dreams, but we had to pack them all as to have a peaceful life and make people around us happy.

We believed that making others happy is an investment, which will bring returns later. I can vouch for this now. Our children with their spouses, grandchildren with their spouses, and great grandchildren are showering us with love; what else do we need now? They are fulfilling all the dreams which we could not fulfill ourselves. Children make our dreams realize, grandchildren add colours to them, and great grandchildren make us really enjoy the dreams.

We believe, whether the marriage is arranged by parents or arranged by the couple themselves, the recipe for success is "love each other, trust each other, support each other, love everyone around you, respect elders, feel happiness in making others happy".

Dear Chakki, Abu and Ammumma are very happy to see that you are remembering and enjoying the childhood days with your naughty boys. Blessings to you, prashant, kanna and sreeku.

All our grandchildren wished in their own ways... Nandu, you posted this blog, Suji and Vinnu wrote poems, Suma made a wonderful postcard, Prashant made a collage of the family tree and Pratibha created a lovely greeting card in her own way. What else do we need at this stage of our life?

We also thank everyone who wished us through the comments to Nandu's blog.

Lakshmi said...

beautiful post..lovely thoughts and emotions..wish your grandparents happiness and health

Vidhya said...

Hi Nanditha, This is such a sweet post!! Let me pass on my good wishes, and many more years of togetherness, to your grandparents.

krystyna said...

Hi Chakki!
What a beautiful name from your childhood.
Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful, love and life story!
I was touched reading your great post and great comment from your grandparents!
I wish them both good health, happiness and many blessings!

What a beautiful, lovely family!

Love and hugsss!

starry said...

Lovely post, really enjoyed reading it.

Maddy said...

if only grandparents lived for ever - i have never seen both my grand-dads..nice notings nanditha!!

but well, they had 4 days to know one another - it is a 3 minute marriage for others in kerala!!

J said...

How sweet! Wishing your grandparents many more years of health and happiness!! :) You are a lucky girl, Chakki ;)

krystyna said...

Hi Nandi!
I tagged you and your mom (only if you want).
Go here:
http://amazingabilities.blogspot.com/

Hugsss!

Unknown said...

Sigh! Such love stories..

Unknown said...

Thats such a sweet post :)

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