'Adu Mami'

Yesterday an old lady from my mom's village died. Everyone in the village, and even families like mine who had hardly any connection with it, knew her as 'Adu mami'. She was really old and had been bed-ridden for a long time n yet her death made more of an impact on me than any death for years.

It wasn't that I knew her well. I didn't. Maybe it was the fact that she knew me. She knew my birthday n she made sure she knew of every important development in my life. It wasn't anything personal. She was like the village memory bank. She knew everything about everyone there. In a way, though I never really felt that I belonged there, as long as she was alive, I was a part of the village.

No one else there might know that I belong. Very few people will know whose daughter I am. She knew. And she always made sure I knew too. I will miss her.