Family

The week has been good in terms of weather and I thought it would extend to the weekend as well, however that’s not to be. So all my planning of going to Stirling which is a 1 hour journey from here seems to be going down the drain.

Reminds me of when the rains used to begin in Kerala exactly on the day when the school reopens from summer vacation. As if the rain god had an inkling of school timings and was giggling over peppering us students with his rain. Always it would rain the two hours before school starts drenching us as we go in and then 2 hours after school so that you sort of get the feeling of being a blanket left on the clothes line but never getting a chance to dry out completely. :)

Today I am in a nostalgic mood, I miss India, I miss my childhood, I miss my school vacations, although god knows why on the last one coz I have been on a sort of extended vacation since last year June.

You know how before every foreign tour you make out a list of things you need to carry like your plugs, your toiletries, clothes, warm clothes, first aid, etc. Well I just discovered that although the PC’s and internet allows you the convenience of otherwise, one of the things that I should have packed was pictures of my family. I see them on Skype every other day but sometimes its just not enough. :(

So let me write a bit on them, shall I?

Half the time while I was growing up I used to be plotting an early demise for my elder brother Nitin. He used to be the bane of my life, the reason because of whom I would get beatings from my father, the guy who used to put a live frog in skirt pockets to see me jumping to the sky, the nasty fellow who used to irritate me, play pranks and generally make life miserable. I never expected him to turn out as good as he finally did. I guess that’s the case with every sibling.

Today however, my friends and other relatives who know Nitin refuse to believe when I tell them of the villain Nitin of my childhood. They simply shrug their shoulders and say, “Nitin, noooo, that cant be true!” Sometimes I look at them in amazement and think, “Helllooooo, it’s true, I was there you weren’t.” Needless to say these thoughts are never spoken aloud for the futility of it.

So somewhere along the irritating brother turned out to be a caring gentleman and I totally missed out on the transformation. Just that one fine day I realised that whenever I was in trouble or low, the first voice I needed to hear was his.

After my marriage he came and told me, “Now you have your own family, this is whom you need to turn to and they will be there for you.” I think he meant to shoo me away for the nuisance that I am however I still cling with the tenacity of an albatross. :)

New relations are never replacements for older ones are they?