the striking feature of my paternal grandmother's house was ...the big ancestral house and the new bungalow of my paternal aunt and the huge amount of space for us kids to play and run around in the 80s and early 90s ....later two more houses were built on that plot and my cousins kids do not have the kind of space we cousins had ....
another very unique feature of my paternal grandmother's place was ...the herculean amount of male cousins...there was just one girl in that Entire household and though my cousin sister was very dainty and dressed very well and coquette is the word that comes to mind when I think of her ...she too was a tomboy at heart .... had to be ...with 11 boys in those 3 households living there ....my eldest aunt had a separate kitchen in the compound and she lived with my paternal grandmother and youngest aunt ....my dad's youngest sister's husband was in the GREF and he was always posted in remote border areas of India... my dad's eldest sister with 6 boys and one girl child ...stayed there as her husband was in the Merchant Navy ... the second bungalow in compound belonged to my 3rd paternal aunt whose husband was working in the SAIL in Bokaro ...as she had a special child ...she did not travel to Bokaro and built her house in the plot allotted to her ....
Ergo this translated to Loads of cousins to play with and Fight with and argue with and go gallivanting around town with...specially to the awsum beach near the house ...
all those cousins thought I was a bit of a smarty pants and a good way to check out each others IQ was obviously a game of chess ....which they taught me ...and I loved to play ....
I was 3rd grade when they started taking me to their club to play chess with their Intel friend ... so Monsieur Intel with a goatee and I would play very earnestly ....he could have finished the game in 5-6 moves ...however he would let me learn the game by challenging me .... most days I lost and I would say ...wow good game ....
however some days I would try my level best to win and give the game my very best ...and once in a blue moon I would cry on losing ....and my Intel cousin who was highly Leftist would be the first one to pick me up and take me for Kapi ....kapi in Malayalam means coffee of course ...however it also means tea and snacks and coffee and snacks or just snacks ....
bakeries in Kerala are just Awsum and by far the cheapest in India too ....and I would love to gorge on pastries and puffs ....and squash (the sweet orange one being my favourite)
my picking up chess was all thanks to my cousins and me getting a little good at it was All thanks to my cousin's Intel Friend ...they were some 12-15 years older than me and yet loved to argue with me ...coz I was like a little Rottweiler of a kid and never gave up trying to Win an argument ...LOL
later my eldest aunt's sons would start cram classes in my dad's house in Kerala and that is the reason I never grow or paint my nails ....
my dad's house when converted to cram classes had a decent laboratory for those doing science in college ...and once my cousin Lalu took me there and showed me some trick with potassium permanganate and when I was not visibly impressed ...he cut a bit of my nail and put it under the microscope ....yuck ....yikesss it was and that was the end of me growing nails ....like for Ever...
my eldest aunt's sons were a Wild lot and Always up to pranks ....
my brother and I were born really dark skinned and my mom believes it's because she went overboard with the calcium tablets during her second and third pregnancy ....
anyways ...we brother and sister were teased like Hell for our skin colour ...to make my brother feel good ...my elder aunt's husband told my brother to drink as much milk as possible to turn fair ...early morning my brother needed a big mug of milk and sugar which he called kaambool for some reason ... then during one trip to kerala ... the 4th of my eldest aunt's sons took my brother to my granny's cowshed and showed him the jersey cow and the cowdung and also showed him the cow defecating ....then he told my brother ...see that cow and how dirty and smelly it's dung ....that very cow's milk you drink ......End of stori of my brother and his milk drinking days ....he refused to drink milk and would howl to do so ....
that cousin of mine and his brothers told me very seriously one day ...look at how dark you are ...do you see any other girl in this entire clan as dark as you ....hmmm the reason is that you were bought for a bag of rice from poor farmers in Andhra Pradesh ... I went howling to my parents asking about my origins and my poor parents ....however the twist in the tale was ....the train in which we travelled to and from Kerala each year.... used to pass through All the desolate and barren parts of Andhra Pradesh and I would not like those parts till I was much older ...I would be torn between wanting to meet my parents and going and living in poverty ... LOL
when I was in college and the train would pass through Andhra ...it would make me smile thinking of my Mad & Krazy cousins
another very unique feature of my paternal grandmother's place was ...the herculean amount of male cousins...there was just one girl in that Entire household and though my cousin sister was very dainty and dressed very well and coquette is the word that comes to mind when I think of her ...she too was a tomboy at heart .... had to be ...with 11 boys in those 3 households living there ....my eldest aunt had a separate kitchen in the compound and she lived with my paternal grandmother and youngest aunt ....my dad's youngest sister's husband was in the GREF and he was always posted in remote border areas of India... my dad's eldest sister with 6 boys and one girl child ...stayed there as her husband was in the Merchant Navy ... the second bungalow in compound belonged to my 3rd paternal aunt whose husband was working in the SAIL in Bokaro ...as she had a special child ...she did not travel to Bokaro and built her house in the plot allotted to her ....
Ergo this translated to Loads of cousins to play with and Fight with and argue with and go gallivanting around town with...specially to the awsum beach near the house ...
all those cousins thought I was a bit of a smarty pants and a good way to check out each others IQ was obviously a game of chess ....which they taught me ...and I loved to play ....
I was 3rd grade when they started taking me to their club to play chess with their Intel friend ... so Monsieur Intel with a goatee and I would play very earnestly ....he could have finished the game in 5-6 moves ...however he would let me learn the game by challenging me .... most days I lost and I would say ...wow good game ....
however some days I would try my level best to win and give the game my very best ...and once in a blue moon I would cry on losing ....and my Intel cousin who was highly Leftist would be the first one to pick me up and take me for Kapi ....kapi in Malayalam means coffee of course ...however it also means tea and snacks and coffee and snacks or just snacks ....
bakeries in Kerala are just Awsum and by far the cheapest in India too ....and I would love to gorge on pastries and puffs ....and squash (the sweet orange one being my favourite)
my picking up chess was all thanks to my cousins and me getting a little good at it was All thanks to my cousin's Intel Friend ...they were some 12-15 years older than me and yet loved to argue with me ...coz I was like a little Rottweiler of a kid and never gave up trying to Win an argument ...LOL
later my eldest aunt's sons would start cram classes in my dad's house in Kerala and that is the reason I never grow or paint my nails ....
my dad's house when converted to cram classes had a decent laboratory for those doing science in college ...and once my cousin Lalu took me there and showed me some trick with potassium permanganate and when I was not visibly impressed ...he cut a bit of my nail and put it under the microscope ....yuck ....yikesss it was and that was the end of me growing nails ....like for Ever...
my eldest aunt's sons were a Wild lot and Always up to pranks ....
my brother and I were born really dark skinned and my mom believes it's because she went overboard with the calcium tablets during her second and third pregnancy ....
anyways ...we brother and sister were teased like Hell for our skin colour ...to make my brother feel good ...my elder aunt's husband told my brother to drink as much milk as possible to turn fair ...early morning my brother needed a big mug of milk and sugar which he called kaambool for some reason ... then during one trip to kerala ... the 4th of my eldest aunt's sons took my brother to my granny's cowshed and showed him the jersey cow and the cowdung and also showed him the cow defecating ....then he told my brother ...see that cow and how dirty and smelly it's dung ....that very cow's milk you drink ......End of stori of my brother and his milk drinking days ....he refused to drink milk and would howl to do so ....
that cousin of mine and his brothers told me very seriously one day ...look at how dark you are ...do you see any other girl in this entire clan as dark as you ....hmmm the reason is that you were bought for a bag of rice from poor farmers in Andhra Pradesh ... I went howling to my parents asking about my origins and my poor parents ....however the twist in the tale was ....the train in which we travelled to and from Kerala each year.... used to pass through All the desolate and barren parts of Andhra Pradesh and I would not like those parts till I was much older ...I would be torn between wanting to meet my parents and going and living in poverty ... LOL
when I was in college and the train would pass through Andhra ...it would make me smile thinking of my Mad & Krazy cousins
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