Dolly Misra

My most memorable favourite place was my maternal grand-parent’s house.  My family were visiting their place every year in summer holidays when we used to get the longest time off.  My grandfather was very well off and had a very big house and a farmhouse attached to it with a very big yard.  My grandfather had a lot of farmlands growing rice, wheat, barley, corn, sugarcane and lots of fruits and vegetables.  He used to store the grains for the whole year round and selling the surplus in the markets.   He had lot of people to work for him, paying them everyday.

It used to get very hot in the afternoon but still we three sisters used to wait for my grandfather for him to wake up from his afternoon nap and visit to the local open market every Friday afternoon.  We used to get some pocket money to spend.  There used to be lots of stalls coming from near by villages selling different kinds of things such as cows, sheep, goats, rice, clothes, vegetables, jewelleries, utensils, toys etc.  I used to buy lots of bangles of different colours to match my frocks, rings and hand-made dolls with different outfits.  We used to get scoldings from my mother for being spending so long in the sun, but we had good excuse being our grandfather with us spoiling us buying sweets and whole lots of other things.  We used to come home completely sunburnt exhausting all our pocket money.

My grandfather had big areas of mango, guava, pineapple, banana, oranges and lot of other tropical fruits.  Mangoes were my favourite and lemon drinks (fresh lemon picked from the back garden) when we were thirsty.  Nothing can beat the home made sugarcane juice.  My grandmother’s home made jam, pickles and chutneys tasted so much different what you buy in the shop.

There was no TV, no cinemas in the villages or any sort of electronic games or toys – so not any sort of evening entertainment but my grandfather used to take us to the local drama group where they used to dress up and act some mythological stories and sometimes musical theatres with lots of make–up performing in the stages.  When we used to get too tired to go, then we used to sit around with my grandfather’s rocking chair listening to him all kinds of stories.  We were getting invited to other relatives and visiting them nearly everyday.  Then sadly the time came to come home as nearly summer holidays come to an end.  Then our grandparents showered us with gifts, new clothes and lots of sweets as home coming presents.  As my mother was the only daughter she was also spoiled by them.

So I have got lots of happy memories of my grandparents till now and some of them I can visualize very clearly.