Re: For people whose parents..
lol what are you implying, bro?
My maternal grandmother passed away when I was 2 or 3 so I never got to know her. My maternal grandfather spent most of his life abroad, so I had very little interaction with him. He is retired now, but he is in Pakistan so we only talk on the phone sometimes. On the contrary, I was super attached to my paternal grandfather, as I was his favourite and he spoiled me a lot as a child. He passed away when I was in grade 5 or 6, but I still recall memories of times spent together and wish he was here today. I loved my paternal grandmother as well and when my daada abu passed away, my mom insisted that my sis and I sleep in my daadi’s room. This brought us closer, but unfortunately she too passed away just a few years after my grandfather.
My mom is kind of a domestic goddess. Everyone in the family sings her praises, including my daadi in her last few years with us. I remember I used to say to my mom how lucky she is to have been blessed with such great in-laws. And all she said in response was, your experience with them is much different from my experience with them and I would like to keep it that way. Apparently my daada abu, being an army man, was extremely disciplined and liked to enforce that in the house. No slacking. No change. And being in control. That must have been hard initially to deal with.
My daadi was my mom’s sagi phuphu. My dad picked my mom out of a bunch of cousins and my daadi didn’t object at his choice. From what I hear from my khalas, my daadi was a difficult woman to please (being a perfectionist herself…the kind who would re-do the dishes if they felt the dishes weren’t squeaky clean), but alhamdulillah, there was nothing serious that anyone remembers or holds against each other. They made it work!
My mom and I watch Pakistani dramas together in our free time. She is usually telling me suno, is larki ki tarah nahi karna susraal main, dekha hai na kitna compromise karna parta hai etc. But it’s never, oh your daadi did this to me or your phuphu did that.