Every evening last week, my brother, brother in law and myself would go to this one particular store in Kalyani and buy a bottle of red wine. Then around this time, the three siblings and their spouses would sit down and enjoy the wine like in the picture in my sister’s house.
Of course, my brother in law would have one parts wine and ten parts Frooti (a very sweet fruit juice) and my sister would have Frooti with one drop of wine (and then claim she was feeling dizzy).
It was absolute fun every evening to get together – just the six of us – as a routine and chat…
Missing it today…

One by one, everybody left. First, my father in law and mother in law left. (Dad had a great time since he finally got a chance to talk to somebody from Durgapur for a couple of days). Then my sister and her family left for vacation. Now my brother and I am leaving with our families. Two days of 15 people together quickly got reduced to 2. I can only imagine how they were feeling as they trudged back to their flat all by themselves. With only each other to support thru the pangs of departure…

Btw, dad had again come down and stationed himself on a chair outside the building gate so that he could say Goodbye.

On our way to my birthplace, we stopped at a tea stall for some tea. The first thing my animal loving siblings did was to find out the nearest street dog and fed it cookies bought from the tea stall owner. And then played with it. No wonder they chase me every time I run. I am sure they recognize me as my siblings’ brother and expect cookies…

You guys are aware how I love finding out my old friends, connections, people I knew etc, right? Well, Sharmila is certainly no fan of that. She thinks I overdo it. (Not that I am claiming causality – just pointing out the correlation that if the old connection is of opposite gender, she thinks I am totally crazy 🙂 )

However, her dad – my father in law – was very impressed how I tracked down Khokon after 37 years. He was also impressed by how Facebook, GPS etc has helped me. Sensing his excitement, I suggested that he should try the same thing.

Yesterday, when I was bringing my family back to Kalyani to my parents’ place, the in-laws (dad and mom) also joined us. My father-in-law mentioned that he has heard that one of his college friends (he passed in 1957) lives in Kalyani.

This was a reasonably easy search – his friend’s son went to college with my brother in law. A couple of phone calls later, we had my father-in-law’s friend’s address.

This morning I walked him to that address and asked him to have a good time and call me if he needed to be picked back. He came back with his friend three hours later – evidently after having a whale of a time. They met after 56 years!!! That beats my 37 year record with Khokon hands down!!

I requested a picture of them that I could put on Facebook. They gladly obliged.

I asked Sharmila what she thought about all this. I got some cold water thrown on my face 🙁

Whatever, dudette, your dad thinks I am cool!!!