Of old photos and old memories...

So, its been raining continuosly since morning... or for that matter, the last 3 days... and honestly, I'm not a huge monsoon fan, and I totally despise getting drenched in the rains... a walk after a downpour is nice though, when its clean and fresh. Anyways, since I had nothing to do this morning (and that is a welcome change by the way) , I decided to take out my Grandpa's dusty old suitcase and look through the several photo albums I keep there. Its something I do every few months...dig out all the old photos and look through each one of them, trying to recollect the different occasions... it kind of feels like a walk down memory lane, and its a great way to kill straight three or four odd hours. There are all sorts of albums... childhood, camps, picnics, schools, vacations, weddings... and oddly, even a set of funeral photos (funny, to think someone was actually busy snapping away during such a sad occasion... I never look through those, by the way) . Some of my closest relatives are pretty old now... and its a strange feeling seeing them all young and smiling in those pictures taken long ago... its like they've aged all of a sudden... like I'd never expected them to grow old (and to think I feel stupid when those aunts exclaim on how big I've become) . But, there are some photos which are definitely more precious than others.







Like the candid one above... its one of my all time favourite photos... that's my Grandmother and me... I usually look at it a good 10 minutes before taking out another. Its not probably the best quality wise...the light's bad (guess what...my Dad clicked it), and its slightly off colour...fading in parts...and my Grandmother (I used to call her 'Bhalo maa"...which means "good mother" in bengali...wasn't a big fan of my own mom as a kid, I guess) was probably in one of her most dishevelled early morning states. Most people say I was darn cute as a kid... I just think I had a huge, funny- shaped head (Dad agrees, said it was shaped like a big egg when I was born, and it was bluish... encouraging) . Basically, this photo stands as proof that my Bhalo maa is responsible for my addiction to tea. She used to dunk her biscuits (the classic Britannia Marie) into her tea and give me small pieces... which is what she's doing in the photo... I naturally loved the "tea- flavoured" biscuits (its obviously seen there) ! Gradually, as I grew up, I progressed from "tea- dunked" biscuits to sips and small cups of tea to... well, a compulsory dosage of a nice big mug (yeah mug) of Chai atleast twice a day. I guess its these small things which make you miss a loved one more than anything else... by the way, mom tells me that as a kid, the dining table used to be my favourite spot... I used to sit on it all day... don't think I can manage that now without wrecking the damn thing. And yeah, I still dip biscuits into my tea before eating them..plain, salted, cream- filled, crackers, cookies... you name it, I dunk it!

Anyways gotta go now... my evening cuppa awaits me.