Contours
I have heard my Ajji (grandmom) tell me the superficial stories of ghosts and goblins. My childhood was intact with her Ramayana/Mahabharata stories and poems. After dinner, she used to sit in her armchair looking at the moonlit sky having me sit beside her. Sometimes the stories used to rattle around her memories of youth or early married life or of grandpa. And I used to trouble her with all sorts of questions…why does she fast in Navaratri? Are the stories from Mahabharta real? How does she know it happened? Has she seen any ghosts? And many more… Once I remember asking her about palm reading. One of my friend’s mom had a stall in our school annual fair. As a child, I didn’t know how a lady is telling people their future just by looking at their palm. So to solve the doubt I asked Ajji, ’Can we know the future by studying the lines of our hand?’ And I remember her telling me that one has to study for certain years in the academy to acquire this skill. I wanted to know if she believed in it. But just as a diplomat as she was! She said ‘our future is surely in our hand!’ I wasn’t mature enough to understand the depth of that statement. I thought, there must be a secret map which will be disclosed after that study. A secret map formed by the thin and thick contours on my palm. And the map will unravel the place on earth where that respective person will gain his/her treasure. Just like they do in games. And a person has to struggle all his life to reach there. And now after all these years, I wonder, what that treasure is. As I grow up, how will I discover my map? I wonder, to unriddle, will the lines fade or my palm will get more wrinkled.