Part Ten
I woke up at 6am and my nephew was already up studying. That kid was working too hard, wanted to clear medical entrance in a few years. Medical studies need a different kind of commitment altogether and it didn’t even start for him.
I refreshed and wanted to drink water but found Jiju in the kitchen making breakfast. He told di might have a temperature and not to tell kids about it, as they might feel guilty. He wanted her to rest till afternoon and the children had a second Saturday holiday so it worked out pretty good. A few hours later the maid came and after giving her instructions Jiju came to watch television with me. He immediately switched to the movie channels with subtitles and pressed the mute button. I felt bad, but instead, Jiju apologized that he didn’t want the children to be disturbed and making me adjust. That made me feel even worse.
But soon di came and sat opposite me and had a goofy grin on her face, Jiju went to get breakfast I guess. I think she is still kind of drowsy, I looked at her with questioning eyes. She told me she still couldn’t believe that I am sitting in front of her. My heart just melted. Jiju came and told her to eat first and then see me to her heart content. Day turned out perfect.
Lunch made was quite elaborate, mostly with my favorite dishes. Never in my life, I was made to eat so much. Even aunty and uncle joined di in her mission to make me eat to their heart content. First time I felt tired eating food, that too my favorite ones.
Jiju took pity on me and took me to a med store. I had a tab for digesting my food for the first time in my life. We roamed throughout the city on the bike. There is always a joy to ride a bike in our homeland that too in right kind of weather. Jiju showed me his office and met a few colleagues outside his office who came for evening refreshments. It was then I came to know that he took a few days leave. I felt honored. He randomly showed few places which they frequently visited. He took me to a market area and made me buy all the gifts I needed to take back to the US. This day was turning out to be more perfect.
We returned and had an early dinner. That was their daily routine I guess. Uncle and aunty went off to sleep and kids rushed to study. Di and Jiju brought all the mattress, pillows of the house to the drawing room and I frowned, what was happening.
Jiju: Come on, let's go to the terrace. We are having an adult night.
I was petrified.
Di: Don’t scare him now, she glared at her husband.
She turned towards me and said, its actually a family night bro, don’t look so scared.
It took few moments for me to come to a normal state. Di and Jiju had a good laugh at my expense.
They were many people gathered on the terrace as even before we reached. Di again went downstairs to bring all the refreshments, now I knew why Jiju took me out so she took time out to make all this. I would have argued for preparing snacks when she had a temperature. I helped her bring those things but glared at her immensely. She took my hand and made me touch her forehead, she didn’t have a fever. But I was not convinced.
I was introduced to all the guests and few were happy to finally meet me and told that it was as if they knew me all along. We all sat in a circle and one lady announced, let the night begin and an applause followed. Then I came to know that it was a sort of committee which discussed all sorts of family situations.
The first issue raised was the poor performance of kids in certain subjects in-spite of tuitions. The solution that followed was to talk to the teacher, crediting extra hours to that subject in the school itself. But it would take a lot of hard work on the part of parents to convince the teachers, for which they were ready. Creative learning was also taken into consideration.
Another situation was the protection of the girl children at schools itself as they had a case of molestation, for which an inquiry was going on. Every person was concerned here including me. Di suggested that every child including boys should be enrolled in self-defense classes. It was unanimously agreed upon. They decided to send all the children to karate classes as soon as their exams were over.
Teens behavior and their aggressive nature was the next topic. One parent feared that her child was already having sexual intercourse. Everyone was shocked. Few blamed their teenage hormones while others suggested diet modifications but no one came to a proper solution. They all agreed to study the topic and come to a good conclusion the next time they meet. I was more impressed when a guy wrote this in a notebook immediately.
Then came the topic of harassment at the office. A lady told about this situation at her workplace involving her very dear friend. Everyone agreed to file a case against him. I suggested having an audio/video evidence to make the case strong. Jiju nodded and agreed with me. Few made the bizarre suggestion that she should resign the job as they feared the high position of the immoral person. A vote was taken. The majority wanted a case to be filed. Awesome.
That turned out to be the last issue of the night. One guy was so happy that he shouted “antakshari”. I didn’t remember when I last played it, my marriage perhaps. Everyone had to sing. No exceptions. It was awkwardly amazing to do such a thing as I was a terrible singer.
I didn’t even realize that my sister slept, that too with so much noise around. When I tried to wake her up, Jiju told me to let her sleep. Everyone told me that she would not even wake up as she was the sister of khumbkaran, di sleeps a lot. I never knew that. She was a sleeping beauty too. Interesting.
Few ladies helped me to clear the terrace as Jiju was handling di. After everyone wished one another, Jiju locked the house and told me how tired he was, longing sleep. I agreed, I slept like a log that night.
Next day I again woke up late. Kids already were revising for their tomorrow’s exam. I wished them all the best and gave the gifts I bought. Again my favorite food was prepared by di. When I asked why do so much work when she wasn’t feeling well, she said, cooking is love made edible and she loved to cook for her family. Then she fed me with her own hands, when jiju made a face, she had to feed him too to stop his childish banter. I was loving those moments.
As I packed my bags for the late evening flight, I went to di to gift her, she loved the intricate piece of jewellery and perfumes. I brought couple t-shirts as well for fun. My jiju was a teetotaler, so booze was out of question. It was difficult to buy something for him as he had almost everything. So I decided to take all the pictures which I had of them and made it into a collage. They liked it.
Di and jiju came to see me off. She literally cried buckets. I somehow cheered her up. As the flight took off, I remembered her words,
I am proud of you bhai.
-----
Authors note:
So, like it so far!! please do tell me in your reviews.
And I would like to thank all my readers for taking their time and leaving a comment/reaction.
I apologize for my grammatical mistakes in advance.
Thank you for stopping by :)
I hope you have a great day ahead :)
-----
Next part:
Part 9
No comments:
Post a Comment