Thousand Moon: Lily (Ghanekar) Damle (86)
Contributed by: Rohini Abhyankar
I met Lily Damle at her residence in Pune. She looked bright
and cheerful. It was obvious that she must have been a very good looking woman
in her younger years. Lily Damle and my father’s eldest sister were good
friends. My aunt is no more and since Lily was a close friend of my aunt’s
there was all the more reason why I wanted to go spend some time with her.
Lily received me with great affection, asked me about my
father and grandfather and my aunts. My grandfather was her teacher in grade
school. She told me how my aunts and she would play together. She remembered
attending ‘Samiti’ shakha under the chiku tree in Ratnagiri where she grew up. She
told me that she got married in 1945 and lived in several different cities as
her husband would get transferred periodically through his job with Central
Excise. Of all the places she lived at she said she had liked the city of
Sangali the most. Of the three sons she had the youngest one was the naughtiest
of all, the memory made her chuckle. She told me that her father in law had a
big house with many rooms but now she lives in this flat in Pune as it is more
convenient. Then she asked me whether I was planning to settle abroad. Before I
could answer she told me to return to India. “Why should we live in other
people’s country? She asked making me speechless…
It was a pleasure spending the precious half hour with Lily.
I had the feeling of having spent some time with my late aunt. As I was taking
her leave she invited me and my entire family to the ‘maunda ceremony’ (a
ceremony performed when a person becomes a great grandparent) and said, “Tell
Mali (my other aunt who is now 85) that Lily is still the same”.
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