Sometimes the most important moment in life could be when you first receive a surprise visit from silence.
Once upon a time, Naniji said, “I used to take my books in the toilet and study there”. I remember my surprise. For an old silver Alto car, packed with 6 people, such secrets were secrets. I remember our silence. It was like for some moments we had all stopped moving. My Nani smiled, continued looking straight at the person holding the steering wheel (checking that we were going right, she was giving us the directions) and said “Otherwise, everyone had work for us. Ye karde, voh kar de (Do this, do that). No one ever got to know that I used to do it. Pitaji would have been so angry. Uss time ke log kaise in sab chhezo ko lete the, you don’t know (People in those days, how they would have taken it, you don’t know). But for me it was clear, books can be studied anywhere.” I remember looking up at her.
Naniji is known in the family for having a very good memory. One story goes, that if you tell her your mobile number once, she would remember it. If you tell her your birthday once, every other family member is convinced that she remembers it; though she might not wish you on all birthdays. She remembers names of books very well. She has not read literature books. When it comes to listing role model relatives, her name is on the list. But in so many years, my mother has never said “Look she studied in a toilet. You should too.” My mother would get so appalled if I do this today. “Books are things you pray to”, she would say. In all the legends that my family weaves around Naniji, no one talks about that day in the car. No one knows this but it was 'knowledge' for me that day.
Our bathroom door has a blue poster stuck, which has Dennis the menace, innocently sitting on a brown arm-chair, and a thought bubble reading 'Do not disturb. Great Mind At Work’. My mother bought it and it is such a good moment because we all have our own interpretations of what we read into it.
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I wrote this memory in October but it is only now on 18 January midnight that it hit me - while shifting we never took it from the door. It is still there.