Happy New Year

I am in a somber mood today. It’s been 4 days since I touched a computer and that’s a rarity considering my profession. And my sadness has nothing to do with any pc-detachment that you might think.

Oh!!! I miss you all already. No I am not talking about my emails and this blog. I am talking about my family. My cousins were here in Gurgaon to visit us for holidays and they have just left. It hasn’t been 15 minutes and already I am feeling sad. And its all the fault of Krystal my cousin sister. We call her Kittu. She cries herself and then slowly *forces* everyone else to cry also.

We had a great time these 4-5 days. They arrived on 28th. My uncle and aunt celebrated the 25th anniversary of their marriage. They live in Muscat and could have had the most extravagant party there but they chose to celebrate here in India.

Time flew by like lightning and now it seems like it was an age that we spent together... Our house is sufficient for the eleven people who currently live in it. Add to that seven from overseas and three from my aunt and one more aunt who is the sister of an aunt and the total comes to 22. Now put all these people in the same living room and put in some music and food and wine and when you get tired, some guitar and some Antakshari and you are in for some rocking time for the new year and Christmas. Then of course you have the wedding anniversary complete with the mass and retaking of the marriage wows and the party later with its share of fights and drunk people.

Since there wasn’t enough space, bedding is made on the floor and all the kids are thrown onto it (Including me, although I am 25 as of now) But this opens up opportunities for a lot of fun. So now we are about 12 kids in a room *told* to be quiet and go to sleep immediately. And instead we are playing stupid games all through the night and into the wee hours of the morning. That would include dumb charades and an unnamed game where we all sit in a circle and the *it* asks a question to someone and the person on the left is to reply while not answering the question asked. We slept at 6 in the morning last night.

I was able to enjoy all this while as I had known about this visit for quite some time and had planned my leaves accordingly. I am to join office from tomorrow. My brother wasn’t so lucky. His office gave him a leave on 25th but wouldn’t consider any more leaves and the boss told him that he would have to take disciplinary actions against him my brother if he chose to take any unscheduled leave he wouldn’t even consider a half day on the day of the anniversary. But with constant pestering (which included my inputs on how to) Rohit was able to arrive just in time for the mass.

There are so many stories I could recount and keep going on and on about them for the days to come.

The flip side of it all was that I got cut off from the rest of the world. This included something which I am not particularly proud of. My friend’s grand father died and I didn’t even call him let alone visit him. He has joined back office. I know because I see a lot of mails from him in my inbox. In my defense I have only one excuse and it is just what it is an excuse. My phone was with my uncle the whole time and he was using it for his communication needs. Also I don’t handle deaths very well. I just don’t know how to react and in such times the simplest of stupid behavior could backfire and turn relations sour. I hope the haven’t already.

That said, I will probably remember this magical year end for quite some time to come as I remember the earlier ones when my cousins had come back then. Right now Al Green is singing “Ain't no sunshine” in my ears.

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she's always gone too long
Anytime she goes away...


Happy New Year !!!