The Family Reunion post Corona!

Dear friends, wish you all happiness and good health. As l related to you earlier that we got to spend the Puja holidays at my in-law’s place and that is Bhagalpur in Bihar.This time, when pandal hopping was out of the picture, the long awaited family reunion saved the day for all of us. The surfeit of merry making, laughter and the thrill of offering pushpanjali(flower offering) together to Mother Goddess at the eighth day(Ashtami) of the festivity, while all the family members donning the best of new clothes at home, never allowed to make any dent to our enthusiasm.

It was indeed our privilege to spend the holidays with my octogenarian mother in law, who is absolutely Mother Goddess personified! Besides her the families of my younger brother in law and three sister in laws made up such a huge number that we all were practically overwhelmed with delicious food, non stop chatter, and incessant ‘adda’ sessions over hot teacups and bevy of snacks. The atmosphere at home was so electric and relaxed at the same time that we all savored each and every moment of our reunion, specially when it happened after a long stretch of gloom and doom called Coronavirus pandemic.
Friends, I observed a curious thing in more or less every person I happenned to meet there,their perspective towards life has undergone a perceptive change. As it’s quite normal in every family, that one might feel a bit reticence towards the other, due to some grievances or misunderstandings. The corona enforced confinement had made everybody to do some realtime reflections and more or less came to the conclusion that all such pettiness are indeed futile. All seem to be beaming, getting together and having a blast.One relative quipped that she was seeing her husband laughing loudly for the first time after the lockdowns.

The added benefit this time over was that all the children of the family were present in the nest. They enjoyed the union in their own way. Whether enjoying a homemade sandwich party at the Sandis grounds during morning walk , visiting banks of river Ganga or merely playing cricket at the backyard, they were for once away from their ubiquitous mobile phones and happy too at that! The cousin sisters(the daughters of mine and my sister in law) also cooked delicious meals for us. But the high point of the reunion must be the impromptu dance session in which all including me with two left feet danced.The most surprising moment was when my eldest sister in law,who is above sixty and undergoing physiotherapy for footache, joined in and danced with us to her hearts content.

See, this family reunion taking place after such a long mental, physical and economic hardship tasted far sweeter than it normally do.Now it’s up to us to keep the love and affections for each other kindled in our respective hearts forgetting the inherent quarrels and misunderstandings. It should be the emotional backbone on which we can fall back on in the time to come and make each other stronger. Stay united.
Adieu for now.