Patima

My grandmother has always been a busy lady. A typical R.K.Narayan novel type grandmother. A formidable, tough person who has never known a day that has defeated her. The world's best cook, a busy bee and a lady to whom no one has dared to speak back, yet.


I am not sure why I write this post now, but I just had to. The image that comes to my mind as soon as I think of my patima (as I call her) is, my patima with her wet hair tied in a Kothavaranga pinnal and knotted below, muttering sacred chants, with "Sambrani" smoke coming out of the sambrani holder in her hand, going about the house to spread the purifying smoke all over the huge house. There is nothing like that image to make me feel at home.


She would wake up at 4:30 AM every single day, take bath (hair bath every day) and wear her "madi" clothes. She would then enter the Pooja room and sing slokas for the next hour. Sacred chants in Sanskrit and Malayalam. I have never heard her sing any other time, all my life, except for during the early morning.


We never had to wait for coffee because, by the time we woke up at 6:30 AM, patima would have boiled milk and prepared fresh decoction for filter coffee. We did not have the custom of having tiffin for breakfast. It was brunch, as that was my late grandfather's preference. Patima has never changed any habit in the house, that had been originated by my thatha. So brunch it is, to this day. She would finish cooking at 8 AM, sharp.


We lesser mortals had brunch n left to our vocations - school or office. Patima would then spend the next hour - hour and a half in the big garden. One half of the garden had flower bearing plants - Changu pushpam, bougainvillea, etc. The other half was a kitchen garden: Plantain trees, coconut trees, Sapotta trees, "Keerai", and I don't remember the rest of it. She spent a good deal of time there, watering the plants and walking around the garden.


Brunch was 10:30 - 11 AM for her. And then, a short nap from noon to 1:45 PM. 2 PM has always been coffee time at home. Tiffin was at 4 PM. Upma, Dosai, Idly, etc. After that, she would sit in the front yard of the sprawling house and start removing the leafy portions from coconut tree leaves and keep the stalk for making homemade broomsticks. She used to keep trays of pulses and cereals in the sun for drying. Once in a month, she would replenish the permanent stock of thattai, murukku, cheedai, adhirasam and omapodi. 


I have not had Omapodi that is even half as good as my patima's till date. I don't think I ever will.


Evening was flower-stringing time. She would "thoduthufy" jasmine flowers for me and my amma to decorate our braids and for the pictures of all the deities in the pooja room. I used to sit by her and she would regale the same family history type story for the 1000th time. I can recite it even when woken up from a dream.


One favorite hobby of mine was blackmailing her that I would touch her before her "madi" period got over after the evening pooja. I spoke about it here. It was fun and I did it often ;)


6 PM was worship time again. She would light the lamp only after which we were allowed to switch on lights in the house for the evening. After pooja, it was dinner time at 7 PM. Then she would chat with our tenants or watch TV for some time. She called it a day at 9 PM. 


Now, she lies in the same bed, day after day, hour after hour, watching the same 4 walls every single minute. I feel bad for her, because, I have always known her as a very active person, who had a solution for everything; One whom no one could restrict or argue with. But I guess, no one can argue with old age.