The Sun, the moon and the Stars...

One of my favorite memories from childhood is going to bed and my grandfather reading me bed time stories...there was story of the king and the queen whose children are taken away and how they get them back, then a story about a washer man, lots of tales from China and Russia...and of course when he didn't want to tell me a story and was trying to dodge the bullet...there would be the story of the boy who cried wolf...not one of my favorites :)

But my GrandFather or Baba as we used to call him...did a lot of funny and interesting things with us, he gave us puzzles to solve, math problems to do, i owe my high grades in Math to him, take us for walks and tell us jokes, taught us how to sit in the sun on a cold winter afternoon and eat sugarcane by ripping off the skin with our teeth...eat roasted sweet potato and peanuts...

When we had jaundice, he made sure we didn't eat boring food, so he would improvise with the little that was allowed, and would make us drink that awful papaya juice, he would climb on a ladder, propped against the papaya tree and get the juice out of the fruit! pretty incredible but back then i didn't think so, i would make faces and howl for i disliked this juice so much...now i feel silly having created such a scene even after i knew how much effort he had put into this.

My Baba is the perfect example of the grand parent who spoils his grand children rotten, dreams big for them and loves them so much...

He's one of the biggest reason why I want to go for a vacation to India, I miss sitting with him in the sun and discussing politics or talking on the phone with his clients and helping him decipher some of the game show questions so we could win some prizes...

Grand Parents are a luxury and I am glad I have all these wonderful memories to cherish...