… If we have no time to stand and stare.

(My father in law himself chose the caption for this picture)

After the whole day on the beach, took my mother in law back to the beach at 9PM. There were a large number of fireworks going on. There were people with splendid fireworks every 200 yards or so on the beach.

My mother in law was suitably impressed with the amount of fireworks, the brilliance of the fireworks (she has seen nothing like this before) and above all the enthusiasm of American citizens in celebrating the Independence Day.

After forty five minutes, she started her slow walk on the sand back to the hotel. She stopped in between, look up to the hotel – which was less than thirty yards away – and said disapprovingly of the Marriott Vacation hotel “era thik korlo na. chhade tuni-bulb laagatey paarto”

🙂

Looking back, maybe, it was not such a great idea introducing my mother-in-law to Snapchat. I was trying to show her a Snapchat from Tasha. But, by the time she was done adjusting her glasses and orienting the phone in the bright sunlight, the photo had destroyed itself since the time period was over.

First, she refused to believe me that the photo was gone. She kept turning the phone around and cleaning her glasses to see if I was just pulling her leg. When she demanded to know why would anybody want to send pictures that would vanish after a few seconds, I was truly stumped on how to explain it in a way she would believe me. I could have cited Anthony Weiner but thought the better of it 🙂

Eventually, Sharmila told her that I was telling the truth. She is now totally confused.

My friend Nandita posted a nice picture from New York of fireworks there on Facebook. I showed it on my iPad to my mother in law. Her first question? “eta kotokkhon thakbey?” (“How long will this pic remain?”) 🙂

Now I am afraid every time I show her a picture on my camera, she will ask me to take a quick printout 🙂