A packet of gems and other memories

Life's ironies, I guess you can call them. Exactly a month ago I had written about Rangan Chittappa's and Vijaya Chitti's anniversary. Today I write in Chittappa's memory--it seems too soon to call this a "memory" but that is what happens from one second to the next; a person is a person and a tangible presence, then the person is a memory, still tangible in many ways, but not in most others.

We take our consolations where we get them, and that we must. Chittappa's last few weeks must have been happy. He enjoyed that anniversary party, he must have been very gratified to watch Hrishee's poonal, and then the lovely rolling landscape of Seattle with Ravi, Yamini and his grandchildren. He did not suffer and linger, and his loved ones (many of them) were around him. Those of us who are far away will miss the special sharing of memories and feelings that happens when families are together, but then we have to believe there will be other, happier occasions for those.

This evening when Achala and I walked into the house, she crumpled a packet of Cadbury's Gems and said, "Rangan Chittappa always bought us Gems," and there we smiled at the memory. We've been privileged, as a family, to have had among us so many elders who shared their warmth and affection across generations. How many children these days know their great uncles and aunts as closely as some in our family? Rangan Chittappa and Vijaya Chitti spent a lot of time with my kids, and I remember one summer when appa and amma were in the US they stayed with us for a couple of months, with Chittappa walking them to the bus stop, quizzing them about various things, and of course, giving them chocolate as a reward!

It's a little over two years since appa passed away, and he too was about the same age: 78. With Chittappa's passing, it seems that a part of our childhood is crumbling away, and being replaced by a wall of memories. But if many of those are like the packet of gems, then we can look back and smile, and even if there are tears, see enough happy pictures through them to bring the smiles back.