I must have been 7 or may be 8 or a year more… not definitely more than that. And I distinctly remember the taste. I had never seen that big a chocolate till then. That chocolate was melting in the mouth. And can you believe I couldn’t eat one fully. Though I liked it, I very unwillingly gave the remaining to my brother to eat. By the time, I ate three fourths of it, I was becoming sick of all that sweetness. Strange I remember how I was lying down with my legs on the side stand of our cot, even today.
It was Cadburys dairy milk bar – I didn’t know the name of it, then.
And they were brought to us by my Uncle, my moms brother. We had two uncles and this was the older one from Bangalore. He was a man of few words and we were actually a little scared of him. Whenever he came home, ( be it to chennai or to Kerala, he made sure he visited when we were spending holidays in our maternal home), he brought large cartons of fruits and lots and lots of chocolates.
There was another memory associated with him. I remember he used to bring a bundle of change and we children were allowed to take as much change we could with our hands. Cousins of my age, who used to spend our holidays with, then, fought with each other lovingly, to grab as much as we can, ( which anyway later went to our mothers, as there was no concept of pocket money )
All these memories came flooding to my mind when I was again at my maternal home couple of weeks back. These were memories stashed away in some corner of the mind and I almost didn’t know they even existed.
When I saw him lying there, in the same place, where Ammama was lying, just 10 months back, it all came back from nowhere just to haunt me for having forgotten them all these years. Weird.
All I can do now is Pray for his soul to rest in peace.
