When 'pethi' changes the pitch of life.
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Age is not just a number. It is an important one that helps one to progress from one stage of life to another. It is up to each of us to take note of this and enjoy every stage, realising that life is a one-way traffic. A missed opportunity is lost forever, never to return.
To be a grandfather is one of the most enjoyable phases of one’s life. However many times one becomes a grandfather, each experience is unique. I was no exception. I have been a “boy grandfather” twice over, and now comes a third opportunity to be a “girl grandfather”. Being the father of two daughters was itself a feeling.
Having a granddaughter for the first time was an entirely different feeling. It is deeply emotional, a feeling for which there is no language. In
such a state, language becomes an eternal beggar.
It is true that grandsons and granddaughters belong to the same genre of grandchildren. But a granddaughter is truly grand. Whether or not this can be analytically backed by reasons or logic, a granddaughter evokes a different feeling and a special sense of grandfathership. An anonymous quote captures this beautifully, “My dear granddaughter, you are the rainbow that colours my life with happiness.”
The feeling of being a grandparent is ecstatic. No wonder a set of grandparents once proudly displayed on their car windscreen: “How we wish we had our grandchildren before we had our children!”
In my family, the elders always looked upon daughters and granddaughters somewhat differently—and preferentially—than us. I often wondered why. I did not have an answer then, but now I do. It is simply because they are what they are. I once carried a grievance; not anymore. Some feelings have to be experienced, not explained. How does one describe the pleasant smell of a rose? One needs to smell it to truly enjoy it. This is what my father told me, and so did my grandfather.
Pethi (granddaughter in Tamil) automatically evokes a different tune and pitch than peran (grandson), both in teller and the hearer.
Today, I enjoy the gurgles and cries of this little angel more than I ever did before. William Shakespeare aptly observed in Much Ado about Nothing:
“There is little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she had often dreamt of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.”
And so, justifiably, there is much ado about a granddaughter. Cheers to all girl grandfathers.