I don’t carry my phone around with me. I check for messages on WhatsApp only whenever I am free. So I was a little surprised when my nephew asked me what I could make for the starters for the potluck party that they had planned to host over the weekend. My nephew and my cousin’s daughter-in-law had planned a quiz show and some games for our entire family. I was curious to know more but it was a hush hush affair. All the youngsters shooed us out of their rooms when we tried to get a sneak peek about the show.
Yes, of course I am smiling even as I narrate this to you. Agree with you totally. This is the best part of belonging to a joint family. I know that. Very well. And this looked like a welcome break specially now. We were all dealing with the lock down in our own ways. The men and the boys were getting restless. They were bored stiff and found it difficult to confine themselves to our house. We all appreciated the fact that we were fortunate to live in such spacious surroundings which was full of myriad kinds of trees, plants and birds. We could all interact with one another at least in person.
But you guys live in nuclear families in Mumbai, the US and in small cities like Vijayapura. I know it must be a tough deal for all of you. Yes, we are blessed in many ways. I do realize that. But our routines too had gone for a super toss and somehow I was excited about the show though I knew next to nothing about it.
Yes, I do agree with you. Like in all families, we do have our fair share of differences. But on occasions like these, we also set aside our differences and come together as one big family. The first thing I did when my nephew discussed the pot luck party with me was to check my phone. The youngsters had divided the tasks amongst themselves. I could see them all pitching in their ideas and working together as a team to make the party a memorable one and felt happy about the whole thing. They had divided the entire family into two big teams. The husbands and the wives were put in different teams. And since the lockdown was for 21 days, they had 21 rounds in quiz show.
Each round had a couple or more questions. Nothing more than that. Some rounds had games like lemon and spoon race. Other rounds were things like standing with the tree pose for as long as you can. Some were buzzer rounds. One round was from the Amar Chitra Katha. And since Ramayan and Mahabharata is being telecast now over the TV channels, there were a couple of rounds on that too. But what I found the most interesting was the round which was about our family tree. Not many people in our family were aware of the names of our ancestors and the small details about them. So that was a nice way of revisiting our past and paying our respects to our ancestors too.
A few rounds were on identifying the movie after seeing the clipping or listening to the songs. There was one round of dumb charades too in which the audience had to identify the name of the movie after it was enacted by their team member. We had to use WhatsApp and send the messages for the buzzer round. And we teased one another a lot because often the messages did not reach the quiz masters even after several minutes. So we kept telling the quiz masters that their phones were not working. So they changed the phone for the next buzzer round. It was fun. The entire show went on for over two hours.
I had spent the better part of the morning making several batches of baby idlis and bruscheta. I flavoured half the idlis with dry karepak chutney and the other half with molaga podi. I felt happy when the entire family relished it. My bhabhis had made pulao, paani puri and medu vada. Everything was very delicious and of course, we were all quite hungry after the quiz show ended. The dinner was a memorable occasion indeed. Towards the end, my nephew announced that he had ordered for some ice-cream. The perfect dessert to round off a fun filled evening.
No, I will not say, that we all forgot about the gravity of our current situation. The impact of the carona virus on our lives was too great to be forgotten about. But yes, for a while, it receded to the background of our minds and hearts. And we reconnected to one another in a very positive manner after a long time.
The youngsters were clear about one thing. That we needed to have such fun filled evenings more often. Yes, there is no doubt about it. That would be great too. But, this could happen only because everyone had shut their shops/businesses and work and were at home. On other holidays like Sundays, I’m sure most people prefer to rest after working hard all through the week. We all do lead extremely hectic lives. And such things have a lot of appeal only if they are organized out of the blue like this. Once we follow a predictable pattern, the novelty wears off. But it is a wonderful idea to hold on to and who knows, maybe I am wrong. I hope I am. It would be really nice to share family time like this more frequently.
Actually, I called you up early in the morning to ask you about how to make home made butter from malai. But you were busy. So I shared a few details with my brother-in-law instead. I was so happy and just felt like sharing it with someone. I’m glad you want to write about it. Do write about it. Yes, good things can happen even in the midst of a pandemic like this.
We all had a grand time. I can vouch for it because I could see and feel the happiness and the positive vibrations in the atmosphere that day. The youngsters did the right thing. We should make the most of this time by spending as much time as we can with our family members and connecting to one another at some level or the other. Yes, the memories will linger in all our hearts for a long time. They will always bring a smile of happiness on our faces. But the most important thing that I learnt that day was that a family is forever…and there is enough space for everyone in all our hearts for all our family members.