Special Mom’s blog

My paternal grandparents would be celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary if they were alive today. I have heard multiple stories about their wedding, and to think back, life looked so simple.

My grandparents got married in Shencottai, a small town in Tamil Nadu, India. Electricity was just getting popular at that time. The homes did not have any. The marriage was happening at my grandmother’s uncle’s home. So her uncle decided to install some bulbs. The only catch being one switch would switch on all the lights. Imagine the privacy of the guests sleeping at night. My grandmother was a good storyteller. She had narrated this story multiple times to me while I lived with them, about how people were surprised in the middle of the night with bright lights.

Coutrallam, a nearby town, has beautiful waterfalls. Till her time of death, my grandmother kept telling me my grandfather left her and went alone to Coutrallam for their honeymoon, which she called Thani (alone) Moon. My grandfather always had a argument that they had traveled a lot later in their lives. Yes, they have traveled all over India, but my counterargument was always that a honeymoon is a time you convince a girl.

I was blessed to grow up with both sets of grandparents. I stayed with my paternal grandparents and visited my maternal grandparents during vacation.

I used to be called a tape recorder while growing up, since I used to sit and hear my grandparents talk. My mom used to tell me not to play anything out anywhere. Hey, now decades later I have a blog, and I think I can start playing back (or writing back) slowly all that I have heard.