HOLIDAY REPORT

So finally the loose ends are all tied up and I return to post again.

Spent thirteen glorious days without office during which time:

• I met my elder brother after a year and half and his wife for the first time.
• Our family got a brand new member
  
• I was forced to part with my two month-old beard which had protected me from the winter cold and was just beginning to look threatening.
• The pet rabbit at home gave birth for the sixteenth time.
• Well-meaning relatives almost managed to coerce me into wearing a goddamn sherwani for the reception. I got back at them though by wearing a black shirt in protest against this blatant Bollywood-anization of Bengali culture.
• I smoked a quite a few fags in the spare kitchen on the first floor. A cursory glance at the ash-filled sink would have raised quite a few eyebrows. But to my defense, I wasn't the only offender, brother was an equal accomplice.
• I endured a lot of queries about my intentions of tying the knot, some in jest, some with utter seriousness. "Since you are seem so enamored by this marriage thing why don't you convert to Islam and get a second spouse and let me live in peace", I muttered under my breath. A couple of my friends got married last year and I can already see their pain. On the day of their weddings I could still smell the whiskey they drank on the farewell night at college. This surely is not the time to get married.
• I realized that out of the 150-odd extended family members and relatives which I have, I recognise only about fifty of them. It was a sheer SPARTA madness trying to remember the names of an endless Parade of cousins, uncles, aunts grandmas and grandpas.
• I had my trusty Zippo confiscated at the Silchar airport. All avenues of anger, persuasion and enticement were already explored when I luckily remembered that there was someone at the airport whom father knew well. I handed over the Zippo to him with a request to give it to father. It was embarassing, but atleast I didn't technically lose the Zippo.
  

Things were fine overall except for the time when a broken water pipe threatened to flood the wedding reception. But then incidents such as this is what makes you remember the day long after. This being a family gathering which I attended after quite a long time, there were some new things to notice not least of which was the sad realization that the days of the Great Indian Joint Family is truely numbered.

PS: I am not really supportive of sharing pictures on the Internet. Nevertheless here are a few old pictures of Dad's garden on the roof which I brought back.