What is my very first memory of my big brother???
First memory:
We were in the house where I was born, this is the house where I dutifully took off all the clothes as soon as I was dressed and washed them under the tap! (not in my memory) This is where hari went to the owner’s house and demanded for coffee and this is where akka wore ‘Angora’ sweater. Annayya played a game of slow motion with me. May be I was 3. The game was, we will stand in opposite sides of our front yard, after 1,2,3 we will start saying a n n a y y a a a a a a and c h e l l e m m a a a and do the slow motion run towards each other. The game ends when I collide with him and he holds me up after hugging and kissing me. This memory glows in my mind always.
Second memory:
I think we were in this asbestos sheeted house and may be I was 3 or 4. This was the house where mom and dad made us sleep on the cot and sat with umbrellas in their hand through out the night if it rained…
This is the house where hari and me were obsessed with the song ‘Dapuliwale dapuli bajaaaa, mere gungharoo bulaaathe he aa, some thing something ….
This is the house where akka wrote the story of a grandmother on a slate. This granny traveled encountering what not before she reached the other side of the slate. Her long journey was measured in the chalk dots and a background sound effect by akka tuku, tuku, tuku tuku….
This is the house where annayya decided to teach me to write a,aa,e,ee – (Kannada alphabets), years before I joined School! He was ready and I was ready. I remember him writing 2 letters first, holding my hand and tracing it once or twice and then telling me to go on tracing till the letter became as thick as a Jilebi (I was not supposed to cheat by holding the chalk horizontally). After that he will teach 2 more letters. I remember tracing like mad and going to him every twenty minutes and he started giving 4 letters and then also I went back for more and lo I learnt the alphabets in 1 day!! I am sure this happened because he made me enjoy the learning process. May be the rewards were higher and may be I loved his attention. May be he demystified the ‘learning part’..
Third memory:
We are in this house which had five corners in one hall. My mother thought it was not a good thing (Ai moola kompa!). This is the house where hari and me were given a joint bath with instructions from Naana. He will be sitting on the chair opposite us and told, hari soap your legs properly, aparna face means entire face put more soap etc.
This is where akka had truckloads of friends who streamed in and out of our home in all the waking moments.
Hari and me had range of emotions towards annayya. We were in awe of his physical strength and his brilliance. He was our shining star.
- I waited in the same room when he exercised with pots full of water as weights and his exercise ended with my favourite ritual, he would say that I am his dumb bell and he would lift me up and roll me over his back and pull me up from under his legs. I remember shrieking with joy always.
- Hari and me would beg him to watch while he had his bath. We loved his performance (now I realize how much he tolerated us, always wanting to see him do stuff as if he is a Television set with various channels!!). He would soap his hair (yes, he had lush strait hair then) and tell us stories of monsters with two horns (he would shape 2 horns with his hair), Chinese traveler (with his hair slicked back), angry ram (with spring horns) and what not. After that the bath ended with him lifting a huge green plastic pot full of water and pouring it on his head!! We could not wait for tomorrow
- Hari and me used to sleep in the same bed with our own mosquito curtain. Hari the sweet and gentle soul warmed my bedsheet before I came to sleep by huddling in it (after me snatching his bedsheet saying mine is cold several times). We would sleep and wait for annayya to come to ‘our tent’. After annayya was ready for bed, he would come to our mosquito tent and start the signature music tana tana tan then announce ‘Now friends, you are listening to Navala shravanthi, today you will hear the story of Ivan’ tana tana tan. Then he would start telling us Tolstoy’s stories with great animation and we would be rapt and hang on every word he spoke. After the story ended, amidst our protest the programme ended and we were told to sleep and the door was closed. We would bask in the story and go to blissful sleep.
I think I can write a book about my brother if I have to say everything he has shaped in me. What seeds of thoughts he sowed, what types of imagination he nourished, what in the world he is to me.
Word is not the thing.
First memory:
We were in the house where I was born, this is the house where I dutifully took off all the clothes as soon as I was dressed and washed them under the tap! (not in my memory) This is where hari went to the owner’s house and demanded for coffee and this is where akka wore ‘Angora’ sweater. Annayya played a game of slow motion with me. May be I was 3. The game was, we will stand in opposite sides of our front yard, after 1,2,3 we will start saying a n n a y y a a a a a a and c h e l l e m m a a a and do the slow motion run towards each other. The game ends when I collide with him and he holds me up after hugging and kissing me. This memory glows in my mind always.
Second memory:
I think we were in this asbestos sheeted house and may be I was 3 or 4. This was the house where mom and dad made us sleep on the cot and sat with umbrellas in their hand through out the night if it rained…
This is the house where hari and me were obsessed with the song ‘Dapuliwale dapuli bajaaaa, mere gungharoo bulaaathe he aa, some thing something ….
This is the house where akka wrote the story of a grandmother on a slate. This granny traveled encountering what not before she reached the other side of the slate. Her long journey was measured in the chalk dots and a background sound effect by akka tuku, tuku, tuku tuku….
This is the house where annayya decided to teach me to write a,aa,e,ee – (Kannada alphabets), years before I joined School! He was ready and I was ready. I remember him writing 2 letters first, holding my hand and tracing it once or twice and then telling me to go on tracing till the letter became as thick as a Jilebi (I was not supposed to cheat by holding the chalk horizontally). After that he will teach 2 more letters. I remember tracing like mad and going to him every twenty minutes and he started giving 4 letters and then also I went back for more and lo I learnt the alphabets in 1 day!! I am sure this happened because he made me enjoy the learning process. May be the rewards were higher and may be I loved his attention. May be he demystified the ‘learning part’..
Third memory:
We are in this house which had five corners in one hall. My mother thought it was not a good thing (Ai moola kompa!). This is the house where hari and me were given a joint bath with instructions from Naana. He will be sitting on the chair opposite us and told, hari soap your legs properly, aparna face means entire face put more soap etc.
This is where akka had truckloads of friends who streamed in and out of our home in all the waking moments.
Hari and me had range of emotions towards annayya. We were in awe of his physical strength and his brilliance. He was our shining star.
- I waited in the same room when he exercised with pots full of water as weights and his exercise ended with my favourite ritual, he would say that I am his dumb bell and he would lift me up and roll me over his back and pull me up from under his legs. I remember shrieking with joy always.
- Hari and me would beg him to watch while he had his bath. We loved his performance (now I realize how much he tolerated us, always wanting to see him do stuff as if he is a Television set with various channels!!). He would soap his hair (yes, he had lush strait hair then) and tell us stories of monsters with two horns (he would shape 2 horns with his hair), Chinese traveler (with his hair slicked back), angry ram (with spring horns) and what not. After that the bath ended with him lifting a huge green plastic pot full of water and pouring it on his head!! We could not wait for tomorrow
- Hari and me used to sleep in the same bed with our own mosquito curtain. Hari the sweet and gentle soul warmed my bedsheet before I came to sleep by huddling in it (after me snatching his bedsheet saying mine is cold several times). We would sleep and wait for annayya to come to ‘our tent’. After annayya was ready for bed, he would come to our mosquito tent and start the signature music tana tana tan then announce ‘Now friends, you are listening to Navala shravanthi, today you will hear the story of Ivan’ tana tana tan. Then he would start telling us Tolstoy’s stories with great animation and we would be rapt and hang on every word he spoke. After the story ended, amidst our protest the programme ended and we were told to sleep and the door was closed. We would bask in the story and go to blissful sleep.
I think I can write a book about my brother if I have to say everything he has shaped in me. What seeds of thoughts he sowed, what types of imagination he nourished, what in the world he is to me.
Word is not the thing.
