I smile like her, and I am a bit of her,
A whole lot of her,
The way I hold my hands awkwardly for pictures,
and the warmth,
Yes, all of it; I have learnt from her,
How to adapt, learn about new perspectives,
She is not that old, she is young,
She is my grandma or as my mom called her, Maa,
So I learnt to call her my Maa as well,

She was always there for a better part of my life,
I still remember each of those bits,
I would have my hand around her waist every day,
Sleep right beside her,
Once I would fall asleep, she would get up and finish all the work she had to do,
She would be awake with me for my early morning exams,
Or when I was growing up, and stained the bed, something red, periods and me,
But she was there, on the cold winter night, putting the rugs to be washed,
Figuring out new clothes and a few pads,

Sometimes, I just feel lucky to have grown up around her,
I had my mom, and infinite love of everyone else,
But I also had her, her oversight,
With her, you know, I realized the time it took us to cut vegetables each day,
Maybe it was her way of making me spend some time with her,
Each evening, there is a table, two sofas, vegetables, and
We would talk about everything and in a few hours,
Almost the entire evening, while sipping our chai,
Here, done with the chopping :D,

She was always there,
She is always there,
Once she was scared about me moving her to New York,
But looking into her eyes when I had explained,
Don’t worry, maa! I would still stay the same, your kiddo granddaughter,
And she approved with me following the only criterion in our home,
Try becoming a better human, please,
Money and everything else will come and go,
But don’t leave the goodness,

She would prefer any day for me to be with her,
But when I tell her about my days here at work or
About how I love this bit of life here,
She accepts it, and if I tell her about my plan,
Of possibly staying her for a bit, far away from her,
Exactly opposite to her wishes, she still approves, and accepts,
Because she lets me do what I want,
What I want to be, where I want to be,
If that is not love, I don’t know what else will be!