Granny's Tales!

It was my granny's first time to Mumbai. She was accompanying her two elder brothers who were appearing to the UK embassy for resident visa permit. People looked at me suspiciously as I made my way through to two flight of stairs to meet them at Joshi Guest House on grant road. They had finished with the interview in the afternoon and were leaving in a few hours to go back home. The cubicle room of the guest house which, my granny kept calling hostel, had three single beds to each side and the fourth wall had a small television set planted inside a metal box. Besides this the only furniture in the room was clothes' hooks and a plastic bin. The sheets were fairly dirty n pillow covers half out. 500 bucks a night, not a bad deal eh?! The men, two of my granduncles and yet another middle aged man, consistently smoked bidis and spat pan in the bin. I was appalled, pukish, inconvenienced and amused all at the same time. Apart from five of us the middle aged man was accompanying his younger cousin who wanted to immigrate to Israel??!! On a three year work permit to nurse the oldies in the family. Investment about four lakhs, income 50k per month, accommodation n food on the house. Anyone interested? She had a list of Hebrew words with their meanings written in Gujarati script(!) and thought that Israel was a Christian country. I don't think she had ever heard of Jews or Palestine.
I half-heartedly requested them to stay back(I had prior commitment of four days of my life to someone). But I whole-heartedly wanted my granny to come to my house and stay with me for a while. 'Don't you want to see Mumbai?', I advocated. 'We went to the embassy office (at BKC), it was a huge building with tall glasses and the interview room was the tenth floor!!!, she replied trying to impress me, 'It was as good as seeing Bombay for me'. And I know she meant it. It is sunset time of her life, and all that she has gone through in life (and trust me which is a hell freaking lot), she didn't give two hoots to the fast, glam n super fancy life of the city. The conversation turned to immigration, education, money and life. Who ever knew that people from remote 'Mer' (my cast) villages of Gujarat wanted to immigrate not only to UK, USA or Dubai but to Israel. Anything and any place I guess, to escape the rugged and uneducated ignorant heat and dust life of being a Mer, of not knowing a word of Hindi, English or for that matter even proper Gujarati. A world where education was still a taboo, a world where people hadn't even heard of live-in or gay relationships, a world in which people wore clothes more traditional than saris for women and pants for men. A world in which you did not marry outside your cast, a world in which you could say MC-BC in front of your kids and a world in which you can break into a fight the minute you thought you are being wronged. A world in which you owned and drove trucks or did farming. A world in which girls didn't talk to boys, a world in which you wear a tons of gold in the weddings over a cheap sari and weather roughened hair n skin, a world in which you didn't change your mindset even a bit even though you travelled across the world or are living in UK. A world in which concept of spending money, learning or being environmentally friendly did not exist. A world in which girls studied more and boys turned into jerks. A world in which choosing your own life partner clearly meant betraying your parents. A world in which someone has just become the first member of the community to take a position of a judge. A world in which my father was the first person ever to graduate (absolutely against the family's wish and zero financial n moral support) in his village. A world in which I am the first person to work in the aviation industry and it is kind of a big deal, at least to them. A world in which you might get married thrice and still not be happy. A world in which your son would not bother to earn a decent living and you have to worry about feeding your grandchildren. A world in which success and happiness meant getting married to a catch found by your family and having children. This was a world, my grandparent's world, where my granny has waited for more than forty years (and some more to go) to visit her daughter and many siblings in UK. A world that amazes and pains me. I have more amazing details and juicy stories (granny has so many of them!!!) but I cannot spill the beans here. Someday I would like to retire for a while and write a book about this marvellous community and the not so subtle gang lords in it.

I dropped them at the station with a heavy heart. I hope she comes back soon and for longer. I hope life gives us more time together. Amen.


PS-the embassy had a sign in Gujarati announcing that if you spoke any bad words or tried to abuse, the interview would be considered done. Lol. You would understand this only of you were a Mer or you knew other Mers closely.