My mother in law surrounded by my side family (brother, sister and their families). The only person missing is my niece who is in a college in Bangalore.

The surprise for the evening was another Roy – our closest friend of 25 years from Dallas – Anannya showed up!!! She is visiting her parents in Kolkata.

There was way too much laughter for one evening!!

I still remember Nikita going around my brother’s living room floor flanked by her cousins on their kid trikes. The Bengali band “Bhoomi”’s song “Gaari signal maaney na” was blaring. (Means – this vehicle does not stop at signals). Later, back in US, I had made a video of the cousins with that song in the background.

The vehicle of time, I realize today, indeed does not stop at any signal.

14 years later they are again chatting away to glory. Just that they have grown up so much!!

This evening’s family get together was starting to wind up. I was looking for a good spot to take a picture of Sharmila’s cousins (and their kids) when one of the folks helping us with the food and drinks offered to help. He took my phone, took the elevator to the second floor and took a shot of us from the balcony! The picture has come out real well!!

Apart from my mother in law’s mother, we have, in this picture, the families of her (mother in law’s) two brothers. They all live in the same house with the great grandmom of Nikita. I met most of them for the first time in my life!!! That was a lot of fun.

I had wanted to do this for a long time. To see if I could put the women of four generations from Sharmila’s side together in a picture. I was sure time was running out fast on me. But when Nikita said that she wanted to see “Didu” (grandmother) and the said grandmother agreed to travel from home to Kolkata, that presented the best opportunity for me.

After lunch, we headed out to Khardah to visit Nikita’s great grandmom. After a short one hour drive in reasonably crowded roads on a Sunday afternoon, we had that moment of Nikita, her mom (Sharmila), her grandmom (“Didu“) and her great-grandmom (do not know how you address great grandmoms in Bengali) together under the same roof.

For somebody of unknown age (she has no idea when she was born, but I think it would be safe to assume she is a nonagenarian given my mother in law is pushing 80) who can barely get up from bed, let alone move around by herself, she has incredible cognitive power, memory and verbal capacity. Not only did she remember the names of Nikita and Natasha, she recollected incredible details from the only other time I had visited her – 30 years back!!!

That was a beautiful moment.

I wonder if this can be repeated with Natasha too some time!

She does not have to worry about arranging for food and all other hosting duties. Quality time with her daughter and her granddaughter.

With her daughter and daughter in law.

Sharmila’s brother and family came down from Kharagpur. As always, my nephew (or is that a nephew in law?) and I exchanged some math problems and logic puzzles!

Today the Roy siblings will be coming over from Kalyani and Kolkata to visit all of us. I expect more math and logic puzzles from my nephews!

… it was the mother in law who finished her mojito first!!