My Silver Story - {Silver Sunday Story Writing C0mpetition 2020}

Writer: A Basu, Age: 7 years, Biography: B Paul, Age: 68 years, Relation: Grandma, location: West Bengal, India

In the year of 1952, I was born in Bengal, India. Being the 8th child of my parents A Sarkar and K Sarkar, I grew up with many of my siblings and cousins. Unlike now, we had no computers but we still had a lot of fun when we were little. We climbed trees, picked fruits and went to school with a group of friends. We had a pond just by our house, where we fished with our cotton sari. Swimming across the pond was our favourite game at that time. Everyone used to say that I sing well. But my family did not have enough money to let me learn music, so I picked up singing by listening to the radio. We were happy with the little we had.

After completing my B.A. degree, I became a teacher. It was the happiest moment in my life. My dream came true as I always wanted to be independent. At that time even though women were not allowed to work outside of the house, I longed to have a life of my own. A few years later, I won an award for being a good teacher and I was overjoyed about it. When I was 23 years old, I got married and I was really lucky to have a family who supported me throughout my working life. It was hard work because I had to finish all the chores and my responsibilities together with my school work. When I was 26, I had my first child. I started another chapter of my life.

I think I had a really ordinary but happy and peaceful life with my family. Back in those days, it was very common to live in a big family with all the extended family members. I had to think about what everybody liked or did not like, but I loved it all the same. If I had the opportunity to leave my life again, I would just keep it the same.

In 2005, I had leg pain so I couldn’t walk so well, I could only limp. Soon it became harder for me. In 2014, I had a leg operation. Now in 2020, after visiting our daughter, I had an accident where I nearly died!! The fan was a bit loose so it fell on the back of my head. It did bleed a lot but the best thing was that I didn’t die.

Now that I have retired which was the end of an exciting chapter of my life, I have started to travel. I have never thought to visit another country, which became possible too. I feel lucky and proud to be a Grandmother of two little monkeys. So, you see, I have lived my life in my own terms and found happiness in everything I did.