Amar Ma

 I yet can’t believe that she has gone. Sometimes I think that she is in the hospital and I will meet her in the evening. Given that was the routine for 2 months and baba was staying with us, it almost seems an extension of that time.

 One story I have told many a people is something that happened back in 1998 or so. Ma and Tushi were coming down from Nerul to town and I was to meet them there. I was to treat them for a nice lunchEdit and we were catching a show of “Hyderabad Blues” in Eros.

 We went to Trishna and I remember the order. It was one dish of prawns and two dishes of crab butter garlic and of course some bread / neer dosa types. In those days, one plate of the crab costed 800/-. Ma almost fainted that I had ordered 2 plates because that alone was 1600/-. I told her that we needed half a plate each so that left us with half a plate which we told the guy to pack. Meanwhile the main waiter came to us and started talking and expressed serious surprise that ma was our mother… he told ma she looked like our elder sister. Oh, I remember her preening and blushing and Tushi and I teasing her. With all these wonderful thoughts, we paid the bill and left and as we were entering Eros, Ma suddenly remembered that we had left the doggy bag with crab in the restaurant. Oh how she felt bad… there goes 400/-… lets go back… eesh… bhool hoye gelo. We of course couldn’t go back as we would then miss the movie and so we continued to tease her that someone says you look young and you leave the 400/- worth delicious crab as you are so busy blushing with the compliments.

 I miss her phone calls coz she never said hello… she started with “haaaan…”. Towards the end, because her hearing reduced, phone calls with her were funny (and at times trying) coz she continued to talk one way lest the other person talks and she has to then listen hard. You had to tell her “ma… ma… ma…” to stop her from her monologue to get a word in.

 She is the closest person I have lost ever and it is hard to think that she will not be there to talk to or meet ever.

 The photo below is the last meal she had outside in a restaurant. This was Girik’s birthday on 8th of September and we went for a nice meal to Taj Lands End at Ming Yang. She was then hospitalized on 16th of September.