MY GRANDMA (I dearly used to call her " Mumma")

We used to go for evening walks.

We used to have lots of talks.

She made me learn maths tables so hard.

She gave me the freedom to think unbarred.

We used to munch on golgappas-our dearest street food.

Each time we ate, we felt renewed

We used to listen and sing

Various poems, songs and hymns.

The random tunes always added some zing.

With her I felt, I could achieve anything.

She was my rescuer. Oh! My Guardian Angel.

She stood like a wall between me and anything baneful.

She always healed me with her touch so gentle.

She was happy-go-lucky and simple.

Although she was one of the most jovial persons I ever saw

Yet when frozen with anger, it might take months for her to thaw. 

Whatever as a child, I might have heard and viewed,

I can never forget her fortitude.

My father had her as his single parent.

However, she was not some errant.

Even at an old age, her vim and vigour were quite apparent.

Her personality was charming and coherent.

Her smile was surely vivacious.

Not even an ounce of her was treacherous.

Her eyes had a sunshine effect.

With hair like grapevine curls, she seemed intact.

It's still bemusing for me how her body turned out to be so baleful

That within the blink of an eye she became a person so dull.

My parents just couldn't figure out what had happened to her.

One morning when I woke up, I saw her head resting on a hospital bolster.

The doctors told that the cause of her suffering was a latent kidney disorder.

Oh! She was dependent on others even for water.

When her clothes had a vomit smear,

On her own, she couldn't even wear

The sarees and suits that once to her were so dear.

It seemed that from within she began to sear.

I won't talk about my parents and their incessant tears.

However, my grandma had the valour of a fighter.

My parents never gave up on her even when situations were tighter.

When local hospital doctors couldn't cure her,

She was shifted to a bigger one and kept on a ventilator.

Even here all hopes did shatter.

A chain of shifting her from hospital to hospital was made

Just to make sure that her condition should be better.

Sometimes I wonder if she was subjected to nothing

But some nasty hospital swindle

That made her almost dwindle.

Her bones became fragile and brittle.

Her body turned pale and shrivelled.

All I could remember were holes in her body

Due to the so-called injections and their thimble

That was inserted into her almost every hour.

I hate the devils in the garb of doctors

Who made my Grandma look like a monster.
Her whole body was just filled with blisters.

I still think the whole hospital service was a bloody swindle.

Relatives and their ornate support is yet another riddle.

Alas! All this was futile now 

For my fairy(my grandma) was no more there to enkindle

My sweet small world.

I didn't even hear her last fizzle.

But don't you worry Mumma,

The love that we shared will always be transcendental.

---------------------------------------------------------©Radhika Gupta(June23,2018)