Sunday, June 06, 2004
i just realised, in the middle of my creative writing assignment, that maami (the desification of 'mummy' made by my nani and her sibs, despite their english governess' best intentions)- my great-grandmother who lives in karachi, my completely not-senile, almost ninety year old grandmere who watches cable, drives the hardest bargain in karachi and has a head of snowy hair- is a princess, born and bred. she is a true-blue, 100% princess. the same woman who i kiss and make funny faces at to elicit a smile, the woman who gives me money in small brocade puriyas, the woman who carries so much grief in her soul and tries to get me to eat another roti is a princess. she grew up wearing jewel-encrusted sari blouses, she had, amongst other fairy-tale things, sixty villages in her jahez, her palki was mounted on an elephant. damn. maami is a princess; i've always known but for the first time i am seeing her in a life that is not karachi and her big lonesome house, and i wonder if she misses the life she used to have; lifetimes away from this world.Mina at 3:03 PM
