Absolute Reunion

“Family”.… a word we all have heard. And most of us are blessed to have the privilege to live our lives with the family. All the problems can be fought off when we have the support of our family. Family helps us stay calm, confident and strong during the tough times of life; it is also the hub of happiness, and we always cherish our good moments with them. They are the people we want to go to during all our good and the bad times.

The Colourful Abode

With the advancement and progression in our professional world, the physical distance is increasing between the family members. In the present scenario, we are unable to stay with our parents and siblings, which was not the case in the early world.

Just imagine,

...You get a promotion in your job and there is a surprise party planned at your home by all your parents, uncle-aunt, siblings and cousins... 

...You get engaged and your cousins are teasing you every time you talk to your fiancé... 

...You have a bad day at the job and you forget about it when you see your family on reaching home... 

...The joy you get while playing with your siblings and cousins... 

...The cute fights you have with your siblings and getting along with them when your mommy is scolding you...

All such things can be enjoyed only when we live in a joint family. But our professions do not allow us to do so. But just imagine how it would feel even if we get to live this life for a weekend! We can do this by planning a family reunion every year. This will maintain a strong bond among the family members. I am lucky to have such a family where we have been organising the family reunion of three days, for three years now.

The Family Utrayan

This reunion involves the family tree with my great grandfather as the root. During these three days I am in the midst of my parents, dad’s cousins and second cousins with their families. About 50 people get together for these three days and live some of the best moments of life. There is a great sense of togetherness and oneness. This emotion is due to the events that we do in this mini-vacation, events such as playing sports, having meals together, clicking lots of photographs and much more. All the people from four generations! The most exciting thing I find is sleeping in tents in the cold weather.

One amazing thing about our family, Absolute Family as we like to be called, is that people are very frank with each other and talk their hearts out. For instance, Rahul, my husband, politely asked in the family WhatsApp group if we could get something for all from Poona. On this, Surangi Desai, my aunty, was candid enough to ask for Chitale Bandhu Bhakharwadi.

4-a-side Badminton

This year the event took placed on 15th, 16th and 17th January 2016. We made a small world of our own as a subset of this huge globe.

Day 1 – 15th January 2016: The breakfast was followed by chit-chatting. This is not the one we usually have, i.e., virtual communication. Rather, this was the actual chat sitting in a huge group while having tea, Bhakharwadi and strengthening the family bond. There was a jogging track prepared on the farm - we went for a walk to have a look at it. The boys already started playing cricket in another section of the farm. The fragrance of the delicious lunch was dragging our attention meanwhile and we could not resist it. After lunch, we again sat under the tree in the open ground in front of the house.

14th January is celebrated as Utrayan all over India, especially so in the state of Gujarat. It’s a kite-flying festival, which we celebrated on 15th January instead. With the kites, all of us were also flying high in the sky with happiness and joy all around. It was an incredible experience while competing with each other in kite flying and still being together. While this session was on, our parents and people from their generation remembered the astonishing days of their childhood. So we decided to visit Lakshmi Niwas, my great-grandfather’s home, which is situated in the middle of Dungri village. I have never stayed there but the undetectable attachment with it filled me with comprehensiveness on going there. This is called Gaon ki mitti ka pyaar!! I also got to know about a haunted house there, just next to our home. And the house-trip ended with some photographs. How can we forget clicking the photos!!

The "Absolute" Kabaddi

As the sun was moving down, our urge to play more was getting stronger. And the “Badminton Night Tournament” followed. Aahhaaaaaa! Finally, game fever was ON. Games we play strengthened the quality of team spirit in us and also gave the immense pleasure of sweet fights.

Volleyball…. I had never played this game ever before. But my family taught me on the fly. And finally, I managed to play but missed many shots. All the tiredness vanished with the warmth of the campfire and undisturbed sleep in the tent. Yes! We slept in tents placed in the lap of our magnanimous earth, under the blanket of the open sky and in the cold warmth of the Mother Nature’s arms.

Ghor

Day 2 – 16th January 2016: The day started with refreshing jogging and a YUMMY breakfast to follow, and then sweating to ecstatic activities of cricket and badminton.

Kabaddi..… one of the oldest games, it also involves physical and mental attentiveness. We played just one round before lunch and had boundless fun. The day continued…. Exciting activities continued…. Fun continued. The hangover of the previous night’s volleyball game was still on, we played four-a-side badminton, adding icing to the ‘fun’ cake!

The colourful day grew down and the sparkling night came up again. It was a sparkling night in the real sense with all the lights, music and dance in the form of Ghor - an Indian folk dance form. A big group of people sang and danced with thick dandiya sticks in tunes with the firm knocks of their hills on the ground.

Day 3 – 17th January 2016: The third and the last day arrived…. SO SOON….

All of us were very happy about this event and sad, at the same time, about departing from each other. Not at all surprising, that we were obsessively playing cards till the last moment. After a love-filled get-together event, we all departed with the vision of the same plan for the next year and other meetings throughout the year on social occasions.

The Great Gamblers

Such “Family Get-together” events bring closer the hearts of all the family members and also a great sense of togetherness. Family is something which shines with pride like the Taj Mahal for our achievements, protects us by blocking the problems like the Great Wall of China, always showers blessings on us like the Christ Redeemer, builds a small world of dreams composed of our success and happiness like the Machu Picchu, makes our life colourful and fragrant with the pleasant smell of roses like the Rose City - Petra, have people with different characteristics but stands as one like the Chichen Itza, is an amphitheatre-like the Roman Colosseum where we can outshine with all our qualities and can stand with our head held high in front of the world.

My Family... My Strength... How about you?