Annapurna - new beginnings

 Patwardhan Kaku messaged me yesterday, 

"Annapurna is going to be demolished tomorrow".

She is my neighbour from Dombivli and we stayed in the same apartment for many years. She and her daughter are more like a family. Kaku is visiting her daughter, whom I consider my sister. I spoke to my sister in the morning and all the years life spent there flashed before my eyes.

I took me a minute to register that the place where I spent the first 23 years of my life is not going to exist anymore and finally it is going for re-development after a long struggle. 

When my grandfather bought a plot in a remote place called Dombivli, there was nothing else in sight except agricultural fields everywhere. He built an independent house and a medical shop for my dad to start working. After my dad got married to my mom, my mom felt lonely in the house and suggested my grandfather to convert into a building where we would have neighbours and more liveliness.

My grandfather obliged and a tall four storeyed building was built and was named after his mother, Annapurna. We started staying on the first floor, the flat spanning 1200 sq. ft surface area. There was a huge living room, two big bedrooms and a very huge kitchen. There were two big balconies. In one we had possibililty to hang clothes and also use it for drying papads, mango slices etc. in summer. My mom was very fond of plants and she built her nursery in the other balcony. There was a Tulsi Vrindavan and we prayed often in the evening there after lighting an agarbatti. 

The building was located very close to the Dombivli railway station in the west. Everything was close by for my parents and grandparents. My kindergarden and primary school was very close-by and later the secondary school was little far off. There was a dentist, Kirana shop (grocery shop), general stores, barber, doctors, milk dairy etc. in close vicinity. As my dad ran a medical shop on the ground floor, I remember my grandmother was always busy in the kitchen, making tea for everyone who worked there or for visitors, medical representatives who visited the medical shop. There were always 2-3 dadas (helpers) who were working in the medical shop and they were always welcome at our place for having lunch etc. I still remember when my dad opened his medical shop for a customer at 2 am in the morning for an emergency. He did it because he thought it was his duty, with no extra cost. Many people still remember him for his generosity and going out of the way to help others. There was always a constant flow of people there and it always seemed that the place is abuzz with activities and people.

All my birthdays, my special occassions were celebrated there. When cats started staying with us, they had their own corners in the kitchen to rest and take care of the kittens. My grandmother talked with them and treated them as family members, we all did. My school friends often visited us to eat the savouries prepared by my grandmother, and they remember her even today. I was really blessed to have my grandparents by my side when I was growing up. They had my back when I had a tiff with my parents and my parents could easily go for work as my grandparents were taking care of me and the household stuff.

Ganpati Festival was huge in Annapura. We had almost 100 guests visiting us over the one and the half days of the festival. I always got a new dress for Ganpati and the preparations started well in advance. Going with my grandfather to book the Ganpati idol, then planning what snacks to offer to the guests, to what decorations to do etc. was a great fun. Naik Kaku, our immediate neighbour prepared coffee for the guests and it was always the highlight for many people. She had three sons and I was her fourth daughter. I shared all my secrets with her and she listened very keenly and treated me like family. All the neighbours in the building had great love and respect for my grandparents and we always had someone or the other come to our house to talk to them in the evening. Making and serving tea and snacks to them was mandatory and was always done with joy. I don't remember a single day when my grandmother refused to do it, she did it with a great dedication and joy. We also celebrated Republic day, independence day, Diwali together. As kids we played hide and seek, cricket, badminton in the campus. We had girls and boys groups and often had fights and groups amongst ourselves.

My grandfather didn't have any siblings or extended family. But my grandmother had 6 siblings. And they always visited us now and then. I was always looking forward to one particular aaji, the younger sibling of my grandmother, Sakhu aaji. She didn't have kids of her own and had a special bond with my dad. She and her husband often came and stayed with us for a month or so. I always wanted her to stay more and it was a joy seeing her talk and cook for all of us. Throughout the year, I don't remember a single month, where we didn't have any people around us. Our house was always hustling and bustling with people, cats and they were very much a part of our lives.

Now when I think of those years that I spent in Annapurna, around people, being there for each other, celebrating every festival together, sharing the ups and downs in each other's lives, always welcoming new people and circumstances and accepting them as they are, has shaped me as an individual. I want to thank every single person whom I met during the Dombivli stint. They helped me grow, they helped me become a very open, friendly, helpful and welcoming person. 

My grandparents breathed their last in this very home and I am sure they are still looking over us from somewhere up above. I moved out at the age of 23 to Bangalore for new opportunities and my parents moved out three years ago, when it was time to think about re-development. After a long chase, struggles, some residents creating a huge hindrance to the re-development process, finally a good decision was taken and the building is getting demolished today. Only to come back bigger and stronger in the next 3 years. 

Annapurna society is a standing testimony to so many families and lives getting built.

The laughter, the tears, the fights are etched in the memories forever.

The memories will live on.

For new beginnings, the old and dilapilated Annapurna has to undergo a change. 

To a new beginning and new life!

Jai Shri Ram