"Well Ma so now this room's shelves and a FULL room is for him ? I warning you now, this means war. You still try to defend that brat, yes he is a brat. You hear that Krish? You are a brat. If you are still on his side, you are no longer my ma." declared the girl standing near the room door. She was little taller than the handle, a fact she also declared proudly 7 months ago. Wearing her jeans and her dad's old t-shirt she was staring her mother down. The shirt was a Sunday project with her dad where they 'refashioned' a plain black T with a worn out small logo into a colorful swirling tie dyed print shirt.
"Okay, okay let's calm down, we can discuss this when we come back" said the woman sniffing and wiping the tears off her eyes and getting off her knees and shutting the wardrobe door. Somehow she seemed to want to solve this petty squabble of her children more than the weight that caused the tears. So she smiled trying to negotiate.
"I just have more things, and I have toys and I have books and also also also you have bigger wardrobe. not my problem." said the boy standing next door peeking into the hall, he was ready to run if his sister decided to chase him and he had a weapon planned for a counterattack. An old torn dusty cloth given to him to clean shelves.
"Maa, this is a warning!"
" Madhu, listen to me". Krish felt an opening. A feeling in his chest, it rose with a smile. He had done this before and would till he lived. It was something he never needed to learn. It was the easiest push of a button.
"Yeah listen to her and be a good girl" said Krish and bolted. Madhu was only few steps behind him. Their mother tried to grab Madhu's arm but it was already too late. Weaving through chaos of a new house and their father, they raced downstairs. The calls to be safe and vowel screams to be careful did not slow them down a little.
The chase finally ended when Krish ran out of the door to the garden where their grandmother sat on the extension of the concrete footing, leaning against the compound wall reading something in the warm light of evening. The warnings by their father ran through them both and the noise halted. They were told about the death in the family, about the sensitive state of their stern grandmother, the weight of grief and most of all the amplifying effect of irritation caused by their fights.
"Ajji (grandmom)" said Krish out of breath
Madhu tiptoed to her left side, glaring at her brother on the right for cheating. She noticed her grandmother was had an old metal box on her lap.
"Ajjies, what is that?" looking at her grandmother reading old yellow papers with her neck turned at little too up to see through the bottom circle of the progressive glasses. This was familiar pose, to a point where Madu cosplayed it for her school play.
"Well, this is something that needs to be forgotten" said their grandmother with a infliction in her voice. Madhu felt the emotion come over her and she wrapped her hands around her grandmother's shoulders and held her tight. The brown sweater and the soft fabric of the saree had a warm smell. This was a familiar scent could lull anyone in the family to sleep.
"Ayee, Madhu" as she rubbed her soft cheeks with rough palms. " I heard you two fighting and running. What did Krish do this time?"
"I did nothing" said Krish extending his hand to reach for the box before he felt the swat coming from his grandmother. Krish bit his nails with a sly smile on his face. She opened the box which creaked at its hinges. Inside was a pocket watch and a smaller box above which she placed the folded papers.
"You know whose watch this is ?" she asked looking at both of them.
"This here was a pocket watch, which belonged to my great grandfather Gangadhar Rao. The story goes, he got this as a mark of excellence when he was one of 30 students in Bombay Elphistone college. My father, your great grandfather had this when he came to the city in 1952, he pawned it a couple of times in desperate times, but was able snatch it back from debt."
An joint 'wow' escaped the kids. "What was he like, Ajji?" asked Madhu and immediately regretted that question. A gloom came across the wrinkled face of their grandmother, the tears that was a little far away came back.
"He was uh" she was interrupted by a call by the kids parents to wear their foot ware.
"We are leaving you behind"
"I call shotgun" said Krish before running back inside.
5 minutes later they were sitting in an SUV. The kids were in the back, despite protests by Krish about the disrespect shown toward his shotgun call. Their mother dumped the immediate luggage in the middle seat next to her mother while she sat next to her driving husband in the front.
After a minute of silent driving. Krish leaned forward to ask his grandmother a question.
"Ajji, can I get that watch as a present ?"
"What watch ?" asked his mother staring at them through the mirror.
"Oh, this one" said Ajji before popping the metal box open and showing them the watch.
"Whose is that?" she asked turning around.
"This is your grandfather's Lakku"
"No ma, you can't give it to them. I can't believe we had this. Where was this, all this time?"
"Oh I hid it. Not from you all specifically, but from myself. It doesn't exactly have pleasant story."
"Can you tell us the story grandma ?" asked Madhu
"No maa, Madu what did I tell you?"
" Actually I should, I have spent too long not speaking about it and I am afraid. "
"Afraid of what?"
"Afraid it might be too late"
"Maa."
"No it's just, your grandfather was a mad man. I still do not know what my mother saw in his laughter, then she told me it was his tears that convinced her."