who's that white woman in the photo huh?

my mom has a sister and two brothers. her younger brother stays in the house in trivandrum with his family and my grandmother. her elder siblings stay in trichur near each other but they rarely meet. there's more intrigue, petty rivalry and strife in this family that in most soap operas. my grandmother's the point of contention now. like some strange hitherto undiscovered species of exotic fowl none of them know how to take care of her. but that doesn't stop them, all of them have opposing ideas for taking care of her.


my grandmother's an enigma. i'm not sure anyone ever really knew her. i've never known her to have any friends of her own, any desires, hopes or likes of her own. she lived in my grandfather's shadow when he was alive. and now that he's dead she seems to have come into her own. she spoke to me for longer the first hour i was in trivandrum than she's ever talked to me, all the years i've known her. i feel i know her a little better now, daughter of the chief-justice of kerala, married to my grandfather when she was still in her teens, stuck in trichur while he went gallivanting around the world till her father put pressure on the government of india to cut his stipend. we teased her quite a bit about the photos of appapan with the white woman and kids, she steadfastly maintained that it was the wife and kids of the guy who took the photo, appapan's colleague.


she's in rewind mode now, reliving the best parts of her life and telling us about the choice parts. happy storytelling ammama.