After finding our way to Mutukumar's little white car, he through my suitcases in the trunk and we began driving. I was instantly thrown off, however, when he reminded me to get in on the left side of the car as I was walking around to the right, the driver's side.
I'm not exactly sure how many hours later, I was asleep a great deal of the time, but we eventually arrived at the end of a long driveway to my Aunt Sathya's house. Her house is in a town in the northeastern part of Tamil Nadu which is a state within the southeastern part of India. Sathya is a pediatrician. Even now, I still remember her taking me with her to the hospital where she worked one day and getting to see and watch her care for all the newborns that were there at the time. That was the day I decided that Indian babies were the cutest! Maybe I am a bit biased?
Anyways, Sathya's house consists of two floors, and then a roof-top space which is soon to be expanded into a meditation area. The house lies within an area that has a few other houses off the sides of this one, long, twisty driveway, but mostly there is just a lot of nature. Although I have never been greatly in touch with the beauty of Washington State where I lived the first 18 years of my life, after spending two years in the city of Washington DC as a college student this drastic change of environment made me feel a sudden sense of nostalgia and appreciation for my salmon state. There is a certain calmness to be found when looking out at a mountain of green and nothing else, a calmness I seem to stumble upon when I expect it the least.
We flew into the area around 3am that morning which meant that once I said hello and spent a little bit of time with my grandmother (84-years-old) and grandfather (96-years-old)it was time to sleep. I put together my mosquito net, and although there was no air conditioning the heat was far beyond a summer in Washington DC, I was exhausted enough that I some how slept away the entire day. After waking up around 6pm, I was surprisingly greeted downstairs by Meera and her family, mother, father, cousins, grandmother and all. After eating an entire Indian meal with only my right hand, something I had to remember exactly how to do, it was time to say see you later. Since it had only been 12 hours since the last time Meera and I were sitting together eating a meal, I figured it couldn't be long until I would see her and her family again.
I should mention that in between waking up and eating with Meera's family, my grandmother insisted that I pack away all of the clothing I brought and only wear Indian attire. Although I had some Indian outfits back at my apartment in DC, most of them were for much more formal occasions. Anyways, before dinner that night, my grandma put me in the car with Mutukumar and another woman and took me to town. My grandmother had informed me that we would be leaving for Kuthur where her organization's main office was located, and for that reason I just needed to purchase something to get me through the next couple days and then I could buy more later in the week when I had settled in to this other place we were headed to in the morning. She (the woman I was with) selected and then bought me three Churidars, a set that includes pants, a loose fitting knee length top, and a scarf to match both. Upon returning to Sathya's house, it was discovered that although the body and pants of the churidar fit quite well, the sleeves that are stitched on afterwards were stitched on much to small making it nearly impossible for me to move my arms once I put the shirt part all the way on. When my grandmother found this out, she was actually quite happy to see that I would be returning the items because the three outfits that the woman had picked out for me that night were full of jewels and sequins, something a minimalist such as my grandma does not take to. My grandma and I settled on the plan that I would travel on the train to this new town in my American clothing and then once I arrived I would be sent out again with two women who seemed to understand her taste much better and we would purchase three churidars, all with a much simpler style this time around. She insisted that I stand up for myself and my own taste when purchasing my next few churidars, since I am not one for the jewels and sequins either."The women just think people in America and girls like you might like these shiny chruidars, but if you don't want them you just say no". That's my grandma for you!
This simplicity mentioned above is very much indicative of the type of person my grandmother truly is. Although I will talk more about her in a later post, arriving to Sathya's house and seeing the simple smile on her very simple but beautiful face was extraordinarily refreshing. She wears the same few cotton saris again and again and does not purchase anything for herself unless she finds it to be a necessity, and even then she makes sure everyone else has what they need first. Although I am a member of the Friends meetings (Quakers) and we place a great deal of emphasis on this notion of simplicity, it was obvious upon my arrival how relatively non-simplistic of a life I lead in comparison to her.
Even more simple than my grandmother Krishnnamal is her husband and my 96-year-old grandfather Jagannathan. He has spent his entire life spinning every morning and only wearing those clothes which he had spun. When my grandmother and I were sitting in the living room and she was busy worrying about my swollen feet from the plane, she was also intermittently telling me stories about my grandpa who was sleeping in the room behind us. A prominent activist and leader of change in India, Jaganathan has got to the point in his life due to his age where he can no longer leave my Aunt Sathya's house, and has to have someone care for him all hours of the day. He spends most of his time sleeping on a cot in the downstairs room and has lost most of his sight and hearing, but wakes one or twice a day to take a short walk and eat a small meal. Although he is not nearly as lively as I remember him during my last visit, I am more than grateful than ever to be see him now, to be sitting by his side now, and to be able to bring him one of his favorite foods in the whole entire world, chocolate. I brought four large bars of milk chocolate candy bars of which he had already begun to eat within my first day of being there. Dorky and cliche as it may be, it is the little and most simple things in life that truly matter...even if it's just a bar of chocolate.
No comments:
Post a Comment