I visited my Achamma(Grandma) yesterday at my Aunt's and was so surprised to hear this from her.
Aunt : Amma, thenga kku englishil entha paraya ( naariyal ko English mein kya kehte hai)
Achamma: Coconut
Aunt : Pinne 25 ino?
Achamma : Twenty Five *Sounding more like twentyphive*
My Achamma is almost 96 years old. Never had formal education. Just the homeschooling her humble family could afford in a time when parents never thought of educating their daughters. But then the quick learner she is, she is well versed with Ramayana and Mahabharata. She was married off to my Grandpa at a tender age of 14 and after that she was pretty busy with farming and giving birth to her 5 kids.
And at this age, she doesn't remember anyone of us. A year back she atleast had my father, her first kid, in her memory, but now she seems to have gone back to her childhood and doesn't even remember the fact that she was married. And English.... coming from her mouth... I couldn't be more happier and surprised. * Wide Smiles*
P.S.:- Its for these moments I love the blogworld. My memories eternalised.
P.S.S :- Just finished Revolution 2020. Not as bad as the reviews I heard. The problem, I guess, is that having written about his life in the first few books, we expect him to deliver the same(the Chetan- effect as one of my friend referred it) in each and every book. Well the first part of Chetan meeting a guy who has a story to tell has become so..o repetitive.
P.S.S.S :- Anyways R2020 was quite a relief from the hangover of " Oh, Shit, Not Again". Man, we were so deceived by the back cover page. Please never, ever read it. Such a pathetic one.
4 Scribbled Back:
Sometimes I feel the oldies are more good at remembering stuff than the younger generation! :| We are such a distracted lot.. and don't even let me get started on the short attention span. It's for the same I love the blog world too -- memories eternally etched on an online medium :) You can look through them and relive them whenever you want. Bliss!
very true..
It is so sad that at old age one of the causalities is memory.
One of my aunts was (and is) like this - self taught. During the period of three years that she stayed in Bombay (yes it was Bombay at that time) she picked up Hindi and English and can carry off a conversation with any one in these languages other than her mother tongue. Thankfully her memory is intact.
Thanks for the tip on 2020 :-)
hey haddock...i just can't imagine how we would be in our oldage. I dont think we have that kind of patience or the learning mentatlity ... not about the language but generally..
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