For Aayi

9/7/2013 – 9/11 2013

There are updates to be shared and they’re important; and then there is bad news.

I re-joined dance classes – a Google offer this time. I am not good at all but a Group-on I used earlier this year has had me interested in getting better. I managed my department through one of the worst Mondays in a long time as my supervisor fell ill due to her fast. Aditya made me delicious Panang curry. I have sort of gotten back into chanting alone for an extended time. I survived a bout of ‘lazy-sickness’ pretty well. Just 4 blog posts missed! Phew! 😀

Now for the bad news. I found out that someone very dear to me passed away 10 days ago. She was the house help cum nanny  with my family for about 8 years of my school going days – practically became family – her and her children as well. I spoke to my grandmother who visited her family on the day of her passing and that gave me a bit of relief around it all. She passed peacefully after enjoying her morning cup of tea while surrounded by her entire family.

I do and will always remember  my ‘Janaki Aayi’ (I call her Aayi, her name is Janaki) as one of the most loving, sensitive and generous people I have ever known. I remember  how she once cried in our living room because my kid brother, probably 5 years at the time told her off for picking him up from the bus stop because he wanted to come home on his own. I remember that after she had stopped working for us and was living with her own family, when she heard that my mother had met with an accident, she was home and taking care of us kids, 8 and 12 at the time the very next day. Nobody had even asked her to come. That is the person she was. She stayed on with us for another year while my mother recuperated. While my mother was still in the Intensive Care Unit, my grandmother sengt her a note that just said “Janaki has come”, which my mother still recalls to be her biggest relief – knowing that Aayi was with her kids. While my entire family literally lived in the hospital for weeks, we never missed a school day or a home-cooked meal, thanks to Aayi.

All my love and respects to my beloved Aayi. I will miss you so much and you will forever be in my prayers!

With that and lots of love

Sasneham Ammini (Malayalam ; translation: with love, Ammini)

for Aayi was the only person in the entire world that called me Ammini