I cannot say I have given a comprehensive tribute to your life, Mumma, if I didn’t talk about the most important event of your life, your शादी (wedding). You and Papa were together for 38 years when he left this world unexpectedly. Interesting anecdotes that we have heard of your wedding range from the time when the wedding was arranged to how it turned around your life completely, as it does for any average Indian woman.
You and Papa exchanged your first glance from a balcony window. The rest was all finalized by the parents. With Papa being a sports journalist, an educated and beautiful girl like you was a perfect match for him. From your family’s point of view too, Papa was a good match as he was educated and came from a well established business family in a big city like Delhi.
A car full of ladies and Papa led by भाभो (great grand mother) and driven by family driver Mangeram arrived in old Agra City in पन्नी गली (a famous bylane) to see you and meet with बड़ी नानी (maternal great grandma) for match making. It was quite an event in those days!
You were always one of the happiest people, not because you had the best of everything, but you were the one who made the best out of everything. Having said that, one regret you had and we all have now is that there are no pictures of your wedding day. That is because बड़े पापा (paternal uncle) took a lot of pictures but unfortunately there was some problem with the camera rolls and all pictures came out dark or black. But as they say, life is too short for long term grudges.
Life changed for you drastically after moving from a small city to a big one, from a small family to a big one, from an education oriented family to a business oriented family, from humble living to the most modern living possible in those times. You were exposed to so many new technological devices after your marriage. More than 6 decades ago Papa’s house had telephone, fridge and television, something which was unprecedented at that time even for a big city like Delhi.
I know that you handled this change so well because you always focused all your energy not in fighting the old, but on building the new.