My grand mother was very beautiful. She was the youngest child and the only girl. She was born in a fairly wealthy family. Her parents were so enamored by her that she never had to do any chores.
I still remember her. She had jet black long hair all they way into her 60s. Every evening, she would oil her hair, and brush it, and braid it, sitting in front of her dressing room mirror. I remember the smell of the hair oil as if it was yesterday.
My grand father worked in the movie industry. His movie associates would often ask him if he had convinced her to run away with him with promises of making her a movie star.
Her mother-in-law thought she might ruin her complexion if she cooked on the antiquated open fire stove they had at the time in India. So, she was not allowed to cook after she go married.
When she was 5 years old, my grandmother was sent to the village school. She was reluctant, but her parents wanted to make sure she was adequately educated. However, disaster ensued on her first day at school. One of the kids in the classroom misbehaved, and the teacher slapped the kid as a punishment. This was way too much for she. She went back to her house that day and declared that she will no longer go too school because the teacher was too mean. That was the end of my grand mother's educational pursuit.
Years later, when my elementary school aged mother got tired of reading aloud romance novels to my grand mother, my mom ended up teaching my grandma how to read. So, she learnt how to read - and she read every day. She never learnt to write, however. She used her thumb print on all legal documents, and read several romance novels every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment