About a year back the twins had to make a family tree and while helping them I found my side of the family far outnumbering the Husband’s side – my five siblings to his two. It was only later that I realised I had included my cousins in my count of siblings. But then the Hindi language doesn’t really have an exact word for ‘cousin’ and that’s how it was with us.
We didn’t live together but the summer holidays would see the six us of in our hometown. Since we lived with our grandparents our home became the place where some fifteen to twenty of us would gather for one whole month of crazy celebration.
It was an old house, not too large. We wonder now, how we fitted in. What’s more we managed with a single washroom between the entire bunch of us. (We now have two washrooms and three people in the house, with the husband being away, and yet there’s constant squabbling).
Studies and work finally put an end to the tradition and almost a decade rolled by since we were together. We tried to meet up a few times but the magic half-a-dozen was never complete.
Then last month one of our cousins was in India for a couple of days and we decided to give it a serious shot. We realised how hard it is for six people to drop their responsibilities even for the space of a single weekend!
One had to postpone dropping off his daughter to boarding school, another one rushed back from a a holiday with his family, yet another one wrapped up a seminar she was organising.
The Husband flew down to look after the kids(and attend a PTM that had to crop up just that weekend), while I was away.
After much planning and coordination we were there, together, in my aunt’s house. Nothing seemed to have changed. Of course the figures were fuller and the hair was thinner but that was about it.
US: Then and now and that quote is one of my favourites |
It was like we’d never been away. We sat around the dining table and talked. Then moved to the verandah and talked some more, then decided to take a siesta and ended up talking again.
It was two days of catching up, piecing together memories, one filling in details the other one left out, debating who’s fault it was in ‘that’ incident, digging out long-forgotten nicknames, laughing over incorrigible pranks, reminiscing about the time we smuggled cigarettes, got caught and got the blasting of our lifetimes.
And there was food —- enough to feed a garrison.
Those two pictures, taken at the same place, years apart, will remain one of my most cherished memories. Nothing can beat the warmth and affection built over years of togetherness and I shall forever be grateful for that. The memory of this trip will last a long long time but we’re not going to wait another decade to meet again.
This post is written for The Cherished BlogFest 2016, hosted by Dan Antion, Damyanti Biswas, Peter Nena, Cheryl Pennington, Mary Giese and Sharukh Bamboat.
and also to
Linking up to Vidya’s Gratitude Circle Blog Hop.
Do click on the link and head on for a healthy dose of gratitude.
are u the one in the orange dress (as a kid) in the top pic? For me it was my maternal grandmas pace every summer.. n those memories are now the best part of my life – sigh!
Good post 🙂
Hi Tulika…as usual it's a lovely post…I am a single child but my bond with 2 of my cousins is so strong that I refer to them as my brother and sister…it's amazing how nothing changes with cousins although we lead such different lives now…thank you for the photo idea…I should do that the next time we meet…
This is a great post. Can you please add a link to it on the Blogfest (official) page. You have it on the sign-up list but not the published list (I'm sorry for the confusion). Anyway, here's the link you need: http://www.linkytools.com/wordpress_list.aspx?id=271304&type=basic
I already did Dan. Thanks for coming back.
Pictures were great and that quote was the icing on the cake.
I love the quote too. I can just imagine my mum pulling out her hair :-).
Love the picture and the quote that goes with it. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. This is a priceless memory for all of us.
I love that photo…I think you'd shared it on FB and I remember smiling at it. Must have been a memorable occasion meeting up again. Sadly, I'm not as close to my cousins.
I did Sanch. Distances often make it difficult for cousins to get together. We were very fortunate.
I liked that quote. Being a mother, I cannot imagine having 6 offsprings in the house. Thank God I have just one 😀
Those childhood days of teeming up with cousins, chattering endlessly were no doubt the best days and I know by heart why that photograph taken then and now is special.
Oh yes.. tell me about it. Two is as many as I can handle.
An absolutely perfect pick for the blogfest and you've written it so well, as always. I know it's amazing how we adjusted so well as kids and I find it damn challenging to parent the one I have at home. Oh, yes! Were we better off growing up the way we did? Sigh. I sincerely hope you get to meet again and much sooner too and that quote is lovely!
Absolutely. I think we were fortunate to not have a world of facilities at our fingertips. It made us more flexible and adjusting. One day we shall meet :-).
These are wonderful items to cherish! One picture serves up thousands of memories.
Absolutely. It was so good we could do this.
I loved the Then and Now picture that is so rare to see these days. We are all so busy with our own struggles these days. I loved the way you have written this post. Absolutely heart-touching. As a co-host I thank you for sharing your story in the Cherished Blogfest.
Thanks Sharukh it was an absolute pleasure.
How lovely is that! I had a childhood where we spent every vacation at my Nana's place. My 2 cousins and the 3 of us were such s riot. Unfortunately we don't get too meet that often now. But it is precious those memories. Loved the pics!
That's the thing Rachna. It is so hard to coordinate.
Absolutely lovely. I remember seeing this picture on FB but reading about the get-together is even more fun. I also had the same bond with my cousins and like you till we got drowned in the boards and all that followed, we met our grandparent's place and had so much fun. I wish we could still do that. People are all over the world and so hard. Reading your post makes me think we should try.
Oh yes boards and studies and jobs are such a downer. But you should definitely try.
That is so lovely! We cousins met for our grandparents' golden jubilee anniversary and had an awesome party. That was seven years ago and we're all miles apart now. I hope we too get to meet one day like this.
Glad you could all meet up. Actually special occasions are a great time to make the effort.
It might have been great meeting after soo many years. I loved that quote too ☺
Thanks Mahathi. It was great.
What fun and love the photo. People these days are just too busy.
Sadly that's only too true. Finding time even for people close to our hearts is difficult.
I think it's so neat when people reproduce a cherished photo years later. What a nice way to recall all those great memories. Good post!
Thank you Paul. We managed it with a huge effort and some luck.
I'm visiting from the Cherished Blogfest.
I loved this story. How lucky you are to have grown up developing such a special relationship with your cousins … even more so that you were able to re-kindle that connection as adults. Wonderful!!
Thanks for visiting and congratulations on coming up with such a fabulous idea.
Congratulations on being able to all get together. It is hard to do these days. The quote is too funny.
Thanks for joining us in the blogfest, Dan – cohost – #CBF16
Thanks. Yeah the quote is funny. It was a pleasure being able to join in.
Such memories are priceless and even more when we recollect them, making it an emotional affair. You narrated the moments straight from the heart.
Thanks Vishal, it was a very cherished moment.
I love that quote 🙂 I don't have any cousins and am also secretly jealous of folks with large families. Looks like you wonderful reunion was had by all.
Aw.. large families are wonderful and it's the kids who get the best deal here.
That's very special. My family has lots of photos, but nothing like that in the the same place taken years apart. That's something we'll have to do sometime. Thanks for sharing!
Happy to share – it was fun doing it too.
Aha! You all could meet, catch up and relive the memories of the past… how wonderful is that! Love that Then and Now pic…. it is a priceless click! Over the years, we have been meeting our cousins individually but never together like we used to do earlier as kids. Must set the ball rolling for a 'cousins reunion'. You have inspired me, Tulika 🙂
Glad we did Shilpa. You must try this. It's like recreating a favourite old memory.
Oh, so lovely! I just loved that pic and quote. You seldom get to (re)make such memories what we most of us living in different countries. I've missed a couple of such precious cousins meet. Sigh!
You really must give it a try. It's amazing to reconnect in person.