Marathi in Ahmedabad

On my way back from buying some groceries down the quiet lane, from a distance, I saw an old woman in a nav-vaari saree trying to pluck the bright yellow flowers from a tree. She held her walking stick above her head and was pulling the branch lower with it as she couldn't reach the flowers.

 "Aaji, thaamba. Mi tumaala madad karte," I said to her. She looked surprised to listen to someone speak in Marathi in Ahmedabad and gave me a sweet, wrinkled smile. "Donaj paayje mala,"she said. I asked for her walking stick and lowered a branch for her. She plucked some flowers and as I returned the stick to her, she put her shaking hand on my head and muttered some blessings with moist eyes.

 My day was made.

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