Just got back from naani's house. I have tons of memories of their house. Just like most people would, of their naani's home I guess. I remember how my parents, maamu, maami and naani would try to wake us up on time and try to instill some discipline in summer holidays, those days when the lack of direction can end up becoming quite counter productive. Well they didn't succeed.
Laavan, Aaru, RG & me must be the most spoilt kids on earth when we are at naani's. We would wake up late. Breakfast in bed. Or infront of the TV. Baths in the evening...Sometimes, when we were much younger, in the backyard, insisting on using the ancient handpump which would draw up freezing water from below the ground, and it felt awesome in the terrible summer heat! On other occassions like Holi, after we would have had our share of colours and water, we would be marched out to the back, and maamu would make us sit under the handpump in turn, and make sure we rinsed off whatever we could before we entered our filthy selves into the bathrooms!
I remember how naana came up with the idea of maggie@4P.M. everyday in order to get us to eat a proper lunch before that. We'd play hopscotch all day long outside their house, or up on the terrace. With the rest of the kids in their lane. And at night we would spread mattresses on the floor so all of us could still whisper late into the night, long after everyone had slept and the only person keeping us company would be the colony guard - he would pass by the house and blow his whistle in the dead of the night, till we fell asleep.
Naani would tell us the same three stories every single night and we'd listen and laugh each and every time. And back in the times when Delhi had severe power cuts in summers, sometimes the entire family would go and sleep up on the terrace till at 5AM the sun would rise and we kids would be picked up and transported to the rooms downstairs.
I remember also how we would grow channa (grams) and rajma (kidney bean) plants in cotton ...and then transfer them to the garden when they grew a bit.
Ofcourse now we've grown up :p But we still wake up late. Still eat all meals while watching TV. But hopscotch has been replaced by quiet walks outside. Maami has begun asking the doodhwaala to supply extra milk since we're prone to making cold coffee at 2AM. The maggie's still there. So is the Coke, and lots and lots of dabbas of namkeens. Our conversations have moved on from weird classmates and teachers at school, to well...more profound things like the aches and pains of growing up. The food's still there too. My maami and naani are two of the world's best cooks, and to them we are still 10 yr olds who need to be fed properly. "If you won't eat properly, how will you study?" is what it used to be till a few years back. Now the 'study' has been replaced by 'work'.
This time we made gujiyas. The special sweets for Holi. So maami made the dough, which all of us then rolled into small round bits. Naani then flattened them, and we stuffed them up with a mix of lots of sweet stuff (which i can't translate into english right now!), and then put aside the semi-circular things to be fried by maami. It was fun, how everyone sat on this sheet we'd spread on the floor. And how the jokes and comments flowed non stop! From teasing RG to be a part of the 'work' to his potential significant other! And RG taking a dig at the gujiyas Laavan made, and giving her a tough time the moment she ate more than three of them later on! :p
Everyone agreed Aaru was the smartest one since she went off to meet some friends early in the morning and hence was spared being a part of the labour force! Maami commented that most of us made up an army of unskilled labour, and maamu tried some of his management strategies to monitor the whole process but soon just went to sleep. Just before going though, he said "all right then...when i wake up I want all the work done, and all the gujiyas...."
And a cheeky voice said "...made and eaten and in our tummies!" :p
Ofcourse these sweets are available in the market too but nothing comes close to homemade gujiyas. Nothing. And it's fun how everyone sits down together to make them ... it's a really nice feeling. There's lots of love, warmth, laughs and well...food. We couldn't ask for more.
