Tiny fingers

We are at my sister’s place, enjoying the holidays. Life has become synonymous with a deep lassitude; a lassitude that comes from having had a crazy year filled with chores and deadlines.

My sister and I unwind by catching up on every conceivable topic. My little niece is always in the vicinity, adding much charm to our conversations, with her sweet thoughts and love.

My mom, her grandmother, has gifted my niece a little-girl nail paint set that has tiny bottles in many colours. My niece spends all her free time applying nail paint to her tiny fingers and toes, and also painting the nails of anyone else at home who agrees to her plans. And when she is not painting her nails, she is busy practicing her dance routine for her school’s soon-to-be Annual Day.

Soon, it is time for my niece to wear her costume and get ready for her dance performance. The entire family is going to attend the show. My niece flits about like a butterfly the whole morning, but sits patiently as my sister and I do her hair and make up. She is very aware of her lipstick and wears a strange pout to ensure that she does not smudge or swallow her lipstick.

All of us tell her that she looks absolutely gorgeous. She smiles and poses for pictures, and then says, “Let me see how I look.” There is a mirror on the inside of one of the wardrobe doors. As she evaluates herself, we are only able to see her tiny fingers holding the door. We await the verdict with bated breath.

After a few minutes, she comes out, all smiles, and announces, “I look beautiful.” We agree in unison and clap. We are soon on our way to a beautiful event and a memorable evening.

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Mooo….

The curtains in my sister’s living room are billowing in the strong breeze and my niece comes running towards me, giggling at the sight. She buries her head in my lap and exclaims that the curtains are funny. Her smile and enthusiasm are infectious. I giggle too!

Just as quickly as she came to me, she now runs away to play with her toys. She is soon back with something hidden behind her back.

“See what I’ve got Pemma (mom’s older sister)”, she says. She slowly brings her hand in front to show me a cow puppet which she is wearing.

She asks me, “Do you know what this is?” I tell her that it’s a cow. “Good”, she says.

Wanting to impress my niece with my mimicry skills, I lower my voice and moo to her cow in my best voice, “Hello cow…moooo how are you?”

I ask her cow to reply. Pat comes the response, “Pemma, it’s just a puppet, it cannot talk”. Hmmm. I quickly change back to my normal voice, feeling silly and also grateful that I did not have an audience to watch my enthusiastic performance!!!

The Green Fairy Princess

It is late in the evening and I ping my daughter. She usually takes time to respond, and I get back to my work. My daughter calls back in just a few seconds. And as we start chatting, she tells me that her cousins are calling her and that she would add me to that call too!

And very soon it becomes an aunts and nieces call, with family members from different times zones catching up on a lazy weekend evening. As with all family calls, there is light-hearted bantering and the exchange of silly family jokes.

While we are thus productively engaged, my younger sister signals us to keep quiet. As we wonder why, she switches her camera to the other side.

All our faces break out into delighted smiles, as my sister’s camera follows my little niece, who is walking purposefully towards the sofa, bedecked in a pair of green fairy wings and a green tiara.

She is totally oblivious to all of us, as she walks over to the sofa and settles down to be a fairy princess with the many other princesses on her favourite TV show. We continue watching her, while slowly getting back to our conversation.

She is our own little green fairy princess, with her new wings that are ready to take her to magical lands, where everything is possible and where dreams come true! Love you little fairy princess.

Big brother, little sister

It’s already mid-October, and the days seem to be outdoing each other, as they run a mad race towards the end of the year.

With every room at home occupied by family members, who are engaged in the virtual world, I find it a challenge to eke out time for a cosy, long chat with my sisters.

I had a sudden free hour this weekend, and decided to video call my sister. Needless to say, it was a rejuvenating call! Midway through the call, my sister turned her phone camera towards my niece, who was sitting on the balcony floor and babbling away, as she played with cloth pegs and a clothes hanger.

As we continued our chat, my sister exclaimed sharply! The skies had suddenly opened up, and it had started raining. My sister asked my niece to come indoors. But the little lady would have none of it. She continued sitting there, her head turned skyward, as she revelled in the feel of raindrops on her face.

My sister tried to lift her physically, but that brought on a loud bawl. As my sister and I laughed, and wondered how we would get her indoors, my nephew happened to pass by.

And, when he realized that his little sister was sitting in the rain and getting wet, he did a very smart thing. He ran to get an umbrella and sat down, holding it over both their heads.

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My heart just melted as I watched this simple act of love. And as I hung up, the big brother continued to talk to his little sister about the rain, and she babbled away in response.

Sweet Aunts & Dashing Uncles

These last few years, our family has shrunk.

Sweet aunts and dashing uncles are suddenly no more. The ones who took us out to the movies, who gave us innumerable treats, who watched us growing up, who threw us in the air and swung us around, who bought us lollipops and indulged us, when our parents refused.

Aunts and uncles, key nodes in the network of our family, who unfailingly wrote to us on our birthdays, who told us stories during meal times, who baby sat us when our parents had to go out.

Aunts and uncles, who could not believe that their diaper-wearing nieces and nephews had graduated from University. They wondered at the fast passage of time.

They laughed in happiness and wept tears of joy when we called to say we were getting married. They took time off from their lives to help with our weddings, teasing us about our spouses-to-be and wishing & blessing us to lead happy lives.

After marriage, we nieces and nephews moved on to set up our own lives, and to build our own homes. Years flew by, and suddenly when we gathered for a family wedding, we saw how these beautiful aunts and dashing uncles had aged. They needed walking sticks, they needed help with small things, they peered at you through their glasses and hugged you with their frail arms.

Where did those days go? We, are  ‘aunts and uncles’ now. We, are ‘that’ generation now, hopefully bonding and creating such memories for our nieces and nephews.

There are very few left from my Dad’s generation. We,  first & second cousins, suddenly feel rudderless. Our family was so big and vibrant. Now, one whole generation is almost gone.

We vow to keep in touch and meet more often to strengthen our bonds of love, the seeds of which were sown by beautiful aunts and dashing uncles.