80 September 2014 www.womanthismonth.com she says Vintage Valuables by BEHNAZ SANJANA Did you know that Grandparents’ Day falls on September 7 this year? While Mother’s Day and Father’s Day evoke much gratitude and fervour, here’s why we should spare their folks a caring thought as well. Thanks to my parents, my sister and I enjoyed a happy childhood. But what particularly made a world of difference to our wonder years was our grandmother. We would have endless, interesting conversations, as Grandmum unassumingly taught us about life and its ways. While our IQ was being adequately fuelled, she was there to nurture our EQ. She was the one who, through her own life’s examples, taught me about humility, passion, compassion and how to stay strong without any malice in my heart. Her stories sparked our imagination and her velvet voice comforted. And with time, the stories turned to chats on religion, science and human behaviour. As I grew out of my dungarees and into my teen years, she became more of a friend. I could talk freely about anything that my shy yet rebellious mind would be consumed with. And she would never judge; she would only gently steer me on the right path with simple, practical reasoning. Memories of my grandmother make me want to be a better mother myself — colouring my children’s world with wonderful, imaginative thoughts, stoking their inner fires to make them strong, grateful and humble beings — just like her. I have come to realise that while a mother is the beginning and the end of each child’s day, a loving grandparent’s heart is the candy along the way. In this fast track life we live, we are nonchalant about the elderly. A line in Despicable Me has the abominable Mr Gru exasperatedly ask his aged, hard of hearing assistant Dr Nefario: “Why are you so.....old?” This best reflects our impatience towards the wiser ones of our lot. Growing old has come to be a ‘condition’ and ‘geriatric’ is almost a bad word. To give them due credit, those in the sunset of their lives are free-spirited enough to laugh at themselves. In a cult TV series, when an old man was asked whether he’d like to take a seat, he replies, “Oh no my dear, I just spent the first half of my day trying to stand up!” But there’s a lot more to shaky movements and cataract than walking sticks and reading glasses. There is a person who has lived, laughed and learnt their way through many, many years of trials and triumphs — a person who has a wealth of quiet wisdom under all that grey hair. I have observed through my own and my children’s case that the presence of a grandparent can truly enrich a child’s life. If you are privileged to have a vintage heart in your midst, give them the honour and respect they deserve. Now that’s what would be really ‘classic’.
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