The Backless - Part 3

Though the store room had got dusted a bit, it was indeed a mess. Meera and me entered the room to immediately set to work going away in different directions. The first trunk I went through had some old rusted metal stuff. The next box I took had some really old broken toys that I didn’t remember seeing ever in life. It strangely made me wonder how many years of memories this room was holding. As I opened the third box, I was surprised to see it stacked with few school note books and dad’s novels. I noticed they were my dad’s since each one of them had his name and date when the particular book was purchased written over the first page. I eagerly started taking out the dusty books one by one to check out my handwriting when I almost started learn write. Then I lifted a few dad’s novels, and started going through them. My heart raced as I saw all of them were famous ones by very successful authors. Some of them were classics. Simply forgetting about the dust and dirt, I sat on the floor, scanning the books and wiping the dirt off my jeans. To me it was like this treasure box I found with every little memory a gem in its own way. “Those are your father’s” granny said and as I looked in her eyes I could see that her brain had traveled to some far off time. “Anyways, clear this up quickly, I don’t want these books to be lying on the floor” she said sternly. I muttered, “I will” to her back as she walked off.

All off a sudden, Meera’s loud voice “Wow!!” made me turn around. She asked me to come over. As I went over I saw she was holding this blouse in her hand. The blouse was very old but the way it was stitched surprised both of us. It was plain golden brown by color and the design was very contemporary. It had very short sleeves and it barely reached the waist and a V-shaped neckline that was deep. “Check out the back” Meera said and turned it. I saw that there was no back to check out but just a thin adequate strip of cloth joining two ends. “This ones the lower” Meera said taking out saffron lehenga with a dark brown border. It was a beautiful pair indeed. “This must be granny’s, I guess” I said looking at Meera and she gave me those weird expression on this. At first, I failed to comprehend but then it finally dawned on me. It was the irony that Meera was pointing about. I wondered granny used to wear such clothes that she doesn’t approve of when Meera does. I didn’t know what to say on this and we kept looking at it.

Granny came from behind and said smilingly appreciating the outfit, “Aah, That was mine. Isn’t it a beautiful pair??” I replied, “Indeed it is!” Granny was completely lost in her outfit ignorant of how Meera was looking at her, struggling not to question. I looked from granny to Meera, a very uncomfortable moment it was! Then granny all of sudden looked at Meera and said, “Didn’t you find the maroon colored dupatta with some work on it? Oh wait I’ll show you.” She bent down and took out a huge dupatta with a lovely embroidery floral border on it. “This would go on my head, and then the two ends would be tucked in the blouse in front. I can’t roam around wearing backless noo” she smilingly said. There was so kind expression in her large wrinkled, a little moist eyes. Meera’s expression changed. Meera and I looked at each other but that was not very comfortable somehow. Our gaze slipped n fell on the ground.

Embarrassed, we turned around, she went back to her box and I went back to mine with granny still holding the dress, to her past!

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