My granny had a terrific memory of remembering poems. I used to sleep with her when I started learning A-B-C-D. Mom was writing some exam,she needed to study till late night. That disturbed my sleep so granny solved the problem accommodating me in her bed. That was a great time for me. She remembered entire Ramayan and Mahabharat in poetry form and used to recite those early in the morning. That was a real delightful event. She used to recite and encouraged me to repeat that after her. So I also started learning those wonderful poems. Now I realize,how tough was it to memorize an entire epic with such ease! I can't recall those now,but at that time it seemed very interesting.
Granny studied up to 8th class in those days. But she loved to read. Still she reads a lot,starting from newspaper to story books. Not only reading,she memorizes things well at this age also. Sometimes she recites few poems,which are very much appropriate for the given situations. She has a wide stock of that. Sometimes I also borrow some lines from her to describe situations.Few days back,I was chatting with mom over the phone,she was telling me something about a lady who is not able to change her behaviour. I knew her,I took help of one of granny's poem. I told mom,granny used to recite about a garlic plant. Its owner brought the best soil and best quality of manure for growing the plan. He used rose water to water the sapling everyday. He sprayed sandal powder and camphor dust to it and placed it near the flow of southern wind heavy with the aroma of freshly bloomed flowers. But finally when the garlic pod came,it emitted the same pungent odour,all nurturing and cares went in vain. So human being is also like that,if one has some ill qualities in him/her,no amount of better environment or social influence can bring positive changes in that person. Mom was impressed,she asked me the source of that poem. She was surprised to know that I borrowed it from granny. I told,it happens,we never recognize the potential of people close to us,but appreciate the same thing when somebody else does so.
Another poem of granny I would like to mention. It's about a person. He spent his childhood playing and taking help from others to succeed in exams. When he grew up he wasted time in gambling and expanding his family. He didn't earn much,and his savings were very less.When he became old,his kids threw him out of the house. He had not a place to live or the capacity to work. Finally he repented a lot for his previous wrongdoing.Granny's poems had morals like this,all served the purpose well to show her future generations the proper way to follow.
Sometimes I feel sad that I have heard all those poems a hundred times at least,but I never took an effort to write them down somewhere. With time,granny's memory has started to fade.....it's not far that some day she will forget all those wonderful poems. I asked my sister to do so but she has no time. A valuable collection will be lost and I will not have those to pass to my next generations. My plan is,next time when I go home,I will start collecting her poems. I can't afford losing them,isn't it?
