Goodness and kindness

Some of my favorite childhood memories are tied around time spent with extended family. During any wedding the entire gang of cousins would come together. Though who we grew up to become is a totally different story, these are some cherished times I am sure. During one of my cousin sister's wedding I ended up reaching the destination an entire week earlier than my parents on my aunt's insistence. Yeah, despite being a cry baby about staying away from home.

Every evening during that time, we would all play badminton on the street till 11 pm post dinner and then move the party indoors to carrom and ludo. This one older cousin of mine always made sure that in the game of badminton he was on my side and helped me scrape through the rallies with his timely saves. That to me was pure goodness. It still is. Strange how one looks up to a smallest act of kindness as a child.

This cousin passed away today. Last I saw him was probably 3 years back playing with his daughter.

Death. Timely. Untimely.
Takes away so much.
Nothing remains the same.

~nightflier

Earned distinction!

On a family reunion sunday afternoon, after hogging tons of amazing vegetarian food (kheer!), we sat in front of the tv, watching 'kati patang' anticipating siesta. Who will 'repose' or 'manufacture zzzz' sooner than the others was the topic of chatter over 'how much one ate beyond one's capacity'.  Until I noticed the carrom board lurking in the corner of the hall. No discussion was needed. Within minutes the setup was ready. Boric powder was thrown on the board, magic tricks of distracting the opponent were performed. I teamed up with uncle, whereas father and cousin, both champions in their 'hay' college days, formed the other team.


More magic tricks involving shadowing the board pockets, deliberately talking loudly when the opponent was concentrating, were performed. During all this I was kind of having trouble getting the right finger position to hit the striker. The pain of playing a childhood game after 12 years! I drove my uncle crazy, when he would advise me to hit a particular coin and I would by default do something equally random and particularly useless.


Uncle : beta, try to take that coin (pointing at it) from the corner circle.
nightflier : Yes trying.
(after few seconds of forced concentration and hitting the shot)
uncle : But, we are playing with black coins, not white!!!
everyone around : #facepalm


Then while surfing channels, and stumbling across Vishwatma on TV, waiting for Divya Bharti to start crooning 'saat samundar' I found the finger hold. I am the straight shot types. Baba having observed this, suddenly told everyone, 'that's how my father used to hold/hit the striker too!' There! I am the girl who holds/hits the striker like her grandfather. And grandfather passed away long time back. I don't really have any tangible memory of him.


So I am extremely happy and proud to have earned this 'distinction' with him! Next time I play carrom, will make sure to remember this, lest I forget.


~nightflier

brand list

Read Upasna's post about the collective shopping experience. And since my blog is suffering (read no posts :() and the post made me nostalgic, I decided why not! Plus being year end and all this is going to be a month of lists, of things done, not done, to be done. Might as well start with some nostalgia!


So, here is the list of our *family* brands. As much as I can remember.

• Bapat kirana stores - Aai still prefers to buy their chakka (from which shrikhand, a typical maharashtrian dessert is prepared)
• Milton dresses - I cannot remember an year without a visit to them. After moving away from home and getting exposed to other brands, the trend has now subdued. But parents still visit, especially when they have to buy gifts.
• Bata shoes - OMG! We are truly a bata family (at list for the slippers :D). Still visited by parents. Comfy stuff according to me.
• Raaj - raajeshwari - for all miscellaneous shopping.
• Choudhari cutpiece center - Year after year all the bed sheets, cushion covers, sofa covers at home bear their seal!
• Hair and care - Dad still uses it!!!!!
• Moti/hamam/mysore sandal soaps - We are so-oh low profile with soaps :D
• Britania marie - These are our favorite tea time biscuits! to this day!
• Society tea - judge us :P
• Dhara oil - oh yes! jalebi!
• Videocon - our first tape recorder, in which countless tapes got recorded with yours truly reciting poems. sheesh. but true. :-|
• Whirlpool - I was so fond of that whirlpool-whirlpool ad that I made parents buy this fridge, when my opinion was asked for :P
• Haldiram - This is our default go-to shop for any impromptu sweets/snacks shopping, when in rush.

I want to add many more. But this is it for now.

shall update.

Do you remember your collective shopping experiences as a family ?

Will be fun to read!

~nightflier

We - the colorful people

Sometimes I wonder, how come such weirdly different people like us are a family.
Again, not in a questioning way, just that plain ‘we’ amuse me way.


When we go for an outing, each has a different thing on their mind. Aai is constantly worried about if such and such wait will annoy baba (dad). Baba is worried over, oh so I have eaten chicken today, shall I go to the temple ? (He isn’t the most practicing religious person around, but then for Aai may be he thought so as she is a vegetarian and sometimes you practice it or not, such questions do arise). Bro is super pissed with me, as I forgot my cell phone at home (in my defense, had kept it for charging in the kitchen and between the rafa-djoker coin toss I lost track). My mind is  still in the match. I desperately want to be in front of the tv asap.


Anywho, we somehow scramble out of the temple, after much debate, yes publicly about how no one cares if you ate chicken (man, are we rude!!). The darshan happens quite peacefully. Once out, baba says we are going to do some saree shopping. An almost visible thought cloud hanging over my brain (which if read or spoken aloud) reads like this – WTH!! Meanwhile, aai who knows, a part of me is stuck at home dilly-dallies. I say in a stern tone, you decide what to do, don't put the decision on me. So 'all' oblige and walk towards the Saree shop (apparently its a shop whose 'AD' baba has seen on TV. Well, that's cute :)) 


And lost between the variety of cotton thats heaped onto us, we are a family again. We buy the gift. Baba makes aai buy one. Brother thinks I should buy one too. Heck I want to buy one too. Cottons are just amazing! I get rid of such thoughts immediately, as I won't be doing any *wishful* shopping till the year end (Yes, its a kind of a challenge). Bhel puri happens. Yes, like childhood days. Albeit we are the parents and are telling the bhel puri wala bhaiyya, to not make it too spicy. Wine and dine happens too. Like grown ups.
We come home. Djoker has sung. Peace has been made. Sleep is sweeter that night.


~nightflier