It's all in the dust. 

Today I noticed red mud in my grandma's compound in Mangalore. We are in Mangalore for a vacation. We were in a rickshaw and stopped near my grandma's bungalow Kum-Kum. As we walked by I noticed the concrete was scrapped off. I tried to find something, anything to tell my husband and kids, that look, that was the pavement my grandma walked, watering her garden. The mango tree right in the centre of the bungalow, the concrete portion in the front, the big brown and white gate, the katta we used to sit and watch buses pass by on most evenings during our summer holidays. Everything was gone. It was all wiped off, like a picture erased from its era; the era of my grandparents had gone way like it never existed. It was the house coloured cream and brown I waited to come to every summer vacation. I was thrilled to meet my grandmother each time. She welcomed us and wrapped us in her arms and the house was filled with joy and laughter. I never felt that feeling in my house in Belgaum, ever. That feeling of belonging to someone was so special. The red-coloured flooring, the interconnected rooms, and a picture of my grandfather with his hair all white on the wall. Playing hide and seek in that house, where there were so many rooms and places, you could easily slide in. I remember running around in my undies along with my cousins, feeling unshamed or anything. We all played around, in the day and in the evening we were drilled to take a bath one by one, using a bronze huge pot. My grandma used to give us a small bit of halwa or chocolates, something like a treat after lunch, she loved sweets I remember. In the afternoons we slept under a fan, together or we were forced to sleep as only then would our uncle take us out, and that was his promise. When he took us out, we sat in his old jeep, and he took us around to the beach and parks and we had a ball each time. It was all gone. All my cousins were scattered some in touch and some busy with their own families. Those were the days, free, and happy. I cherish it to this day. But it had all gone. the one person and house that brought us all together, all gone away, in the dust.