Down the sweet memory lane with my Dadu

Written By Tasnia Ahmed Chowdhury

Picture collected from Pinterest

                                             

"Man is mortal" - a fact that we often get to hear in our life. We only realize how cruel this fact is when we lose those people in our lives for whom we feel the deepest love from our hearts. When we lose the people with whom we find solace in our life and when we realize the love and care they gave to us were something priceless which can rarely be found from another person, only then the pain of losing one's dearest one hits us more than the pain of other things. The first time when we realize we lost that person forever we only grieve their death but as days pass by with their absence our grief comes from the yearning for the lost unconditional love they had showered on. One such person whom I lost in my life was my granny whom I used to call 'Dadu'. Having both working parents much of my early childhood was spent with my Dadu. She left this world and me when I was 8 years old. Many memories of her faded with time while some stayed but the joy and the liveliness that I used to feel around her, those feelings remained both in my heart and memory. 

Picture collected from Pinterest

                                                          

Her extreme fondness and care were something that I have hardly received from other people apart from my parents, my younger sister and my Nanu. Our family is a very large one with many members. Back then, most of the members used to live in the same house on different floors. Dadu used to live on the 2nd floor with us. Other members often used to come to the 2nd floor for dadu. Those who did not live here used to come to visit dadu. So the house was always packed with many people. During those days, there used to be certain rules which everyone had to follow like eating together. The elder used to eat after the children. Back in those days, my day used to start with seeing her face and talking to her. When my school used to be open, I used to leave the home for school after saying bye to her. After coming back home, I technically wanted to play with my same-age cousin but dadu never used to let me do that. She used to force me to take a shower at first then let me play with my cousin. Sometimes, my same-age cousin and I used to play pranks on her. She used to pretend to get angry or used to laugh at our pranks. The days were filled mostly with laughs only.

 Picture collected from shutterstock

                                                    

Since all of our parents are working parents, so back then she had to take care of all of my cousins too. There used to be house-help too for helping her. At sharp 1:30 pm, she used to make all our cousins sit at the dining table to eat lunch. Somedays, she used to cook dishes that used to taste too delicious. After having lunch, sometimes my same-age cousin and I used to go the garden of our house to play. Somedays, we used to play till Maghrib time or somedays till 4:00 or 5:00 pm. Somedays, we used to play indoor games at home. My cousin's parents used to come home from their workplace at around 3:00 pm. So since she used to live on the 3rd floor, after her parents came back home sometimes she used to go with them. Then I used to go to my Dadu that time and then while listening to her stories and chatting with her, I used to fall asleep.

Picture collected from iStock

                                                        

Then my parents after coming back from the office used to wake me up at 6:30 pm. Then after finishing my study, I used to watch TV with my dadu. When my mom sometimes used to scold me I used to go to my dadu. She used to pamper me a lot that time and used to forbade mom from scolding me. In fact, during those days if I used to get sad for any reason at all I used to share with her and she used to console me. Since many people used to come to visit her, they used to bring many foods and gifts for her. She used to share that food with me. If any of those foods they used to bring looked tasty to me, I used to intentionally roam around my dadu so that she would give me her share. Life was exceptionally good with her. The life that I yearn to live for now.

Picture collected from 123RF

                                                     

As days passed with contentment and happiness, life suddenly started happening. Dadu started getting sick day by day. She got diagnosed with cancer. Later she was not able to spend much time with me as she used to before. One day she was admitted to the hospital as her health worsened. She was there for many days. The day when I was supposed to go with my mom to visit her, I got the news of her death. I was numb the first time I heard that. The feeling of the pain of the death of the most loved one was too foreign to me. I cried a lot that day. After that day, I cried many times alone. The absence of her from my life was too big because I suddenly felt too lonely. I had to adapt to a new lifestyle where I had to spend the days alone. There was no one to console me right at the moment I felt sad or no one to force me to take meals on time after coming back home from school. House stopped being packed with people unlike before. Three months after her death, my baby sister was born. Life went on and I got used to her absence. There are times I miss her and want to go back to those peaceful days of my life but since I can't so I go down this sweet memory lane with her where I felt nothing but only love, happiness and peace.

Picture collected from shutterstock