INHERITANCE

As a student I had to commute in local buses as prevalent during those times. My wait for the arrival of the next bus forced me to notice an old lady curiously observing me. I pretended to ignore her but still found myself to be a subject of her curiosity. Undeterred she stared, unabashed I turned my back towards her, only to find her blatantly changing sides to face me again. Realizing my awkwardness in avoiding her she questioned me about my grandparents and excitedly mentioned my mother’s name to confirm my filial descent. She then introduced herself as an old neighbour of my grandparents who had seen my mother as a teenager and my resemblance to her. Thank God! I whispered as I took a seat and bade a farewell to my new acquaintance. Genetics and not Facebook turned out to be the most potent tool in uniting the long-lost, figures in my mind.

 As I was having my morning walk session, I could see groups of people performing yoga and yet another group indulged in a discourse on adhyatm. It made me realise that I missed the gene during the crossing over stage of cell division from my genotype during transference from my ancestors. I had spent over half a century on this planet and despite growing up amongst the most spiritually inclined grandparents, yet the idea of spirituality had never struck a chord.

Counting the traits, I could even find the gene for artistic fervour from the other side of the family as having mutated during chromosomal replication. Alas! I could only look up with awe at my father and his father for that lost phenotype. Genie if only you could give me that gene, I desired so much.

 I remember complaining to my grandmother about a ton of my traits: my thick eyebrows, spectacles adorning my face, hair on my scalp and my facial hair, to name from her side of the family. She squared off all my grudges in one statement. “Say all you wish but be grateful for the brain you have from my side of the family.”

 God forbid! I just do not intend to offend anyone as I delve into the matters of inheritors or their inheritance. These are sacrosanct issues to us for we are all inheritors. Assets are not the only class of inheritance we have.