*good times*

• when we were growing up it was always a given that ash ush lal and zab would be going everywhere together. well as far as madu and td were concerned we always gave them side roles in our games. nani jees house was the hugest (don tknow if that is a word or not) but well it was the biggest house ever with ground to run on on all four sides. there were orange trees, pomegranate trees , guava trees, mango trees, jamun tree and miscellaneous vegetables in the vegeatble patch and the kids were forbidden to touch them. how could a little kid not touch anyof those wonders. we would steal an orange here and there but then wed be so guilt stricken that we would go and tell nani jee.

• we used to play this game near the mango tree and it was called "nani amma nani amma" . i dont know how but i think we had learnt that game from a maid and would play it every day religiously. one day as we were playing, nani jee came out and sat there smiling at her grandchildren running about. nani jee was this cute rolly polly lady who would tell the most wonderfull stories about our parents and nana jee. and she would give us 5 or 10 rupees if we would rub her legs or feet. There was this ritual where she had various coloured mugs and the kids would drink tea with her in the evening and stuff their faces with rusk , the round ones specially from rahat bakery......... she had these cookie jars which were always full of goodies. i was reminded of it the other day because one of the bigger cookie jars always had roasted seasme seeds with brown sugar in it and we would put our grubby hands in it trying to sneak some out but never could because it would make a clinging sound when we would put back the lid, so then we would be caught. the other day after a long long time mom filled that same cookie jar with seasme and brown sugar and i was reminded of this time with nani jee.

• well coming back to the game, we would just play it not knowing what it meant but when she found out what we were playing we got a scolding i can still remember now. it was like a game of tag in which one person was the nani amma and the rest were the kids. the kids would say " nani amma nani amma sair ko jain" "grandma can we go for a walk" and the nani would reply " nahin baccho" "no kids" and then we'd ask again " nani amma nani amma sair ko jain" then she'd say "haan baccho" "alrigh kids". so the kids would run off merrily pretending to pick up things from the ground and when they would come back nani amma would ask "meray liyay kiya layay" "what did you get for me" and the kids would have this imaginary thing behind their backs which they'd quickly pick it up and throw it in the nanis face and say "goon pairay" "cow dung cakes" and run away. the poor things we were, we didnt know what goon pairay meant as it was a word in punjabi. well nani jee told us what goon pairay were alright.

• nani jee would put mehndi on her hair and we would always dip our hands in it. i dont know if ash remembers but once ash and i took the mehndi and smeared zabs back and stomach with mehndi, hahah and then shamim mami took the doi (cooking spoon) to us and while zab was yellow ash and i were blue and black hahah. nani jee was the greatest :)