After a week with my parents, now the next four days are focused on the next two generations. At a quiet riverside resort with all siblings of myself and Sharmila and all first cousins of Tasha and niki. Last time Sharmila and I had all our siblings and their spouses together was …. Never. The kids are ecstatic. The four of us are getting a good chance at getting in touch with our roots!

Well, that was my week with my parents. My best time each day was waking up at 4:30 to sit with my parents for a couple of hours in our garden. Drinking tea, watching the daybreak, enjoying the flowers, occasional question and answer but mostly quiet – just enjoying each other’s company. No doubt we were all wondering how many more such days we will have. The loudest conversations, indeed, were the silent ones.

Gardening is the way my dad keeps himself busy now in his advancing years. I am amazed by his dedication and perseverance at this. These are some of the summer flowers he had in his garden that I took pictures of when I visited him in Durgapur. (June, 2011).

Dad is suitably impressed by iPhone. he is astounded that the piddly device can show the route to my sisters house (gps), show the current temperature, stock price, news satellite picture of his village and so on. But he is disappointed that I do not know what the “I” stands for in iPhone. He thinks I am covering up my ignorance by saying it does not stand for anything

Finally, I understood my dad’s deep rooted disdain for my running. Why don’t you play soccer or tennis he asked. Why, what’s wrong with running, I asked. Pat came the answer – because you are not having to beat anybody! I think he still thinks of me as the school kid who has to beat everybody to the first rank!!!!