My grandma is the kindest person i know,
With the most tender love anyone can show.
Unbeknownst to ebb and flow,
Each passing year, I see her kindness grow.

I was a little girl all of two,
When i became my grandma's pet.
Just Mom and Dad would not do
First-born of the house, on me were all eyes set.

Then i started to grow up,
Howl, scream and show my delight,
Crawl, and take my tiny step,
When neighbors liked to squeeze me tight.

Grandma couldn't bear to part with me,
And kept me company day and night.
Away from mother's breast, on bottle feed,
I hugged my grandma's bosom tight.

Love being love, is always strong,
For one you cannot call your own!
So grandma overlooked my every wrong,
Like a parent cannot, only a grandparent can.

With my head on her elbow, I liked to sleep,
To a fairy story, a promise she always liked to keep.
I woke her up often at night,
For a call of nature, and for every other plight.

When I came down with a whooping cough,
She tried a cure from every nook and cranny.
With my appetite dwindling to half,
Panicked my sweet worrisome granny.

When I came of age to go to school,
Every morning at the thought of leaving home, I lost my cool.
After many a failed ploy, a tantrum, and my kicking like a fool,
The hired man would coldly drop me at school, to the missus' rule.

The school, indeed, was a dreaded sight,
Despite the lovely uniform, red and bright.
An abrupt end to my days of flying the kite!
To miss school, every single day I would put up a fight!

When it rained, flooding the narrow street,
Calling for a holiday, much to my innocent delight,
I ran home and up the terrace, dancing on my nimble feet,
To a prisoner of school, oh what a welcome treat!

Many a year passed by, without a dent in my love of freedom,
Inescapable it would seem, my misery each morning.
But, I sure had my rescue plan - a renegade nap in the afternoon,
And no one dared to find my secret places of hiding.

Grandma would see through my each trick,
And pretend to chase me around with a stick.
But, slippery and agile on my feet,
I sure knew how to turn up her heat.

At school, whenever there was a cultural show,
I'd always bag the most extravagant role.
Not for my teachers' acquaintance with my raw talent,
But, for special costumes, they had gotten wind of my granny's penchant.

Then when the show was finally put up,
With her entire retinue, my dear granny would turn up.
Stylish lady, in cool shades and a pretty starched saree,
She always told me "Dress to kill girl, even if you gotta stay hungry"!

Despite my habit of playing truant,
My teachers found in me great talent.
They told her, the kid was very clever,
But, my scores hardly mattered to my granny ever!

I recall a day when I went for my first day of tuition,
Against my own simple wisdom of relying on mind and intuition.
And coming back shivering from cold, drenched in the rain,
Granny distraught to behold the sorry sight, swore to never send me there again!

All achievement, that I can today call mine,
And their pride, I have today become,
Is because my grandparents believed a child needs freedom,
And never missed a chance to let me have my fun.

Shorn of all semblance of burden to please or perform,
My mind began to acquire an altogether new form.
Taking delight at being the best in every subject
Maths, Science, English.. Oh was there a passion unexplored yet?

Oh I wasn't merely a sweet child, I'd often throw a tantrum,
Or get upset at nothing and go on an empty stomach.
Surely, granny drove her entourage to my school with a feast,
And would goad me to eat, with all my friends in sight!

Granny Granny my dear Granny was a fashionsta no less,
She never taught me frugality, on my clothes making such a fuss
She even piled up a wardrobe of sarees, of the most exquisite silk
Her repartee was - one day I would be a bride who needed her pick...