The stream of life moves along. What was present yesterday is no longer there today and whats in front of your eyes today may not be there tomorrow. But we move forward, holding dear to our hearts, the thoughts and memories and then cherish them until our last holding breath. Someone else will keep our thoughts and memories and pass them along. And so goes human life.
Memories and thoughts of tatayya were frequenting my brain more often in the past few days than in the past few years. Tatayya’s health has been deteriorating over the years and the ever active tatayya was no longer interested in small talk. When I first moved to US, I would call my grand parents every month and my tatayya would take over the phone and talk with me, advise me and have a jovial conversation. In the past few years, tatayya would just saw a few cursory words and then hand off the phone to Ammamma. Ammamma, who had successfully managed to not speak more than fifteen minutes of conversation over phone till then would talk for a good forty five minutes. Its fun to talk to ammamma, but tatayya’s way of narration and conversations are different. I don’t remember when I last spoke to tatayya over the phone. It’s sometime in 2022, probably over summer.
The other day, I was thinking about what was the last movie, I saw with tatayya and my mind went blank. Tatayya came with me and my sister to a movie when we were in eighth class, but after that, I couldn’t remember. In that movie, which had actress Vijayashanti, tatayya was joking with us about going onto the stage and dancing alongside while the song was playing and we tried all sorts of things to prevent tatayya from embarassing us in that small town. I think tatayya came with me and my sister for another movie called “Chudalani Vundhi”, when I was in my engineering days. I’m doubtful, but I’m blanking out after that. This was in 1999, I guess? Speaking about movies, I do remember vividly the scolding I got for watching a movie called “pardes” and showing up late at home. He was worried about dogs chasing us as we had a problem of stray dogs in those days at our home in Malkajgiri. This was in 1998.
Tatayya during trips is a completely different person. You might wonder if its a doppleganger who is in his stead, given that the usually amusing and fun tatayya is metamorphosized to a stern, disciplined military commander. The transformation starts on the day of travel. If the train comes at 9 am, tatayya wants us to reach the station by 6 am. I don’t know why but tatayya is the only Indian to think that there is a chance of our Indian trains starting before time while the rest of us would be happy if they started on time. It has something to do with him working for Indian Railways, I guess? Tatayya would operate the entire trip with detailed and meticulous planning. He would do a day by day breakdown, coordinate with the coolies, the taxi drivers and all that. He becomes the fulcrum of the entire trip and would write painstakingly long notes of his entire trip and then tell the trip details umpteen number of times to anyone who is willing to listen. Ammamma would get annoyed, but that didn't bother tatayya from explaining the entire day to day operations, explaining narrative and surronding details of each photo from an album having hundreds of photos. But, I learnt quite a bit. For example, I was inspired for a char dham yatra based on the photos of an earlier trip that tatayya took to the place. Similarly, we went to Agra and Delhi based on the photos that tatayya took from an earlier trip there. I had the privilege of going to both of these trips with tatayya along by my side (in 2003 and 2006) and I was also lucky to be chided by tatayya for showing my NRI tantrums in our trip to Jaipur, where I wanted to experience the local grandeur and instead had to eat at a street side restaurant in Jaipur.
I’m dedicating an entire paragraph for Tatayya’s abroad trips. They went twice to Australia, once in 2000 and another time in 2012. For the 2000 trip, tatayya wrote an entire book with details of places, their history, the people and life in foreign. I might be joking now, but I listened to them with a gaping mouth back then. I had never even stepped on a plane, let alone going to abroad before then. Tatayya brought me sunglasses and I wore them like a hero. I was the biggest benefactor of their trips because those hour long descriptions prepared me for my first trip to US. I’ve never stepped onto a plane before and hence tatayya’s vivid descriptions of free soda, cookies, chocolates whetted my appetite. Tatayya also told me on how to behave with the airhostesses.
Tatayya helped me a lot with my passport. I mean, I was terrified back then because of tatayya staring from behind while you are filling the application. I made multiple mistakes and tatayya would get upset if you didn’t fill them clearly and cleanly. I guess tatayya would have filled my application on my behalf and he most certainly did all the talking with the passport officer at the passport office.
When was my last trip with tatayya? I would have to say 2008. We went to hindupur together. When was the last time tatayya and I sat in a car together? 2016, when we went to alankrita resort. This makes me sad. Its not because of the long gaps that have happened, but because of the stupor and the self centeredness of my existence that has made me not even think about these things until now. While there is a tear in my eye, there is also a smile on my face, for I do remember the answer to a question: When was the last time you saw tatayya smile? Everyday! For he is etched into my memories.
