Vasu's post about sathabisekam has inspired me to go down the memory lane.
The first satabisekam I attended was of my great grand parents in our village. (my mother's grand parents) I was 8 years old and I remember my great grand parents were really old. Now a days 80 year olds do look much younger! My dad (was the only one) had a camera and we had some few black and white snaps with our great grand parent's vague picture amid smoke. That was my first visit to our village and I remember taking lot of 'elnirs'.
Later after my great grand mom passed away my ggfather came to live with my grand parents. He could never recognnise or remember our names and always used to call me 'karuppayee'or 'olakkayee', may be the names of some farm helpers from his village. This used to make my brother laugh so much and tease me to tears. my grand mother(his daughter in law) never used to talk to him and we were the mediators when my grand father went out for work.
The next sathabisekam was of my own grand parents (father's parents). This was when I was 11 years old. These two were much smarter and the function was held in the local choultry in Bangalore. (where I got married 8 years later). All the grand children were given 10rs. each and I had made a wire bag myself with that money and used it as my school bag. My grand mom liked the bag and wanted one for her which I made and gave her. ( she had kept it with her and used it for another 4 years till her death.) This grand mother wanted to use shampoo which I think had just been introduced in the market and was afraid to use it. So I helped her in shampooing her hair and I think she was thrilled though I don't remember her expressing it.
The next one was to my maternal grand parents who were very very close to all of us. As my mom was the only daughter all the seven of us siblings were the world to them. This was in 1983 and we all joined in organizing it, and was done in chennai with major contribution in organizing by my brother at chennai. We had lost our father by then and my mother was very happy that we all were doing this to her parents. By then I had understood the serenity of the occasion and what it means to live and see a thousand moons (which is what is said about significance of the sathabisekam)
Fortunate are those children who are blessed to celeberate the sathabisekam of their elders, which brings happiness all around.
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2 comments:
Nice.. 'olakkayee' hahahahahah .. couldn't resistlaughin.. hahahahaha..
mm wow.. man.. u are resourceful.. used to 10 rs to make a bag huh.. not bad..
now you are the lucky one; having seen 3 couples who have seen 1000 moons.And witnessed the unique events thrice over.And keleidoscopic images and memories of those days.We have passed through interesting times.I call our generation the sandwich generation, where we have seen first hand traditions having a strong base(women not talking to men of the household) and have also been witness to our children taking bold steps in taking charge of their lives.The beauty is we do not condemn either of these practices but are able to understand both.
We have seen our mothers cook in "woodstove" and have now migrated to microwave and ready to eat.One can go on i suppose;but you get the drift.
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