He was not happy that I was going to leave in a few minutes after the ride/walk. Hopefully next one will be in another three months…

Three more hours of being on the road and I am back in Kalyani!!

Evening adda with parents and brother in law!

Hearteningly enough, she is doing great by herself. After my father in law passed away one and a half years back, she has settled down in her own routine and seems to be very happy with herself.

After the previous time’s challenge of getting her to look at the phone and not my Apple watch, I took no chances. Got DN to take our pictures!

Four hours of drive from Kolkata (we got stuck a couple of times) and we were in Durgapur. When in Durgapur, the three mandatory stops are at my mother in law’s, my maternal uncle’s and a dash to check on my friend Baisakhi’s son. This time I was in Durgapur for all of one hour and fifty minutes and managed to knock off the first two.

While I go to my uncle’s place every trip, this was different. First, I saw my cousin after a long long time. He is always busy with his work and business and in spite of my quarterly visits, I never manage to catch him. Today, I was able to nail him before he could escape. Had a great time catching up one on one with him.

Second, his son was there too. Last couple of times, I had missed him since he was in school. Usually, with him around, nobody else does the talking.

Finally, it so happened that my niece (daughter of my uncle’s first daughter) was visiting her grandparents at the same time!! So, that was a full family!

We pulled chairs outside in the sun and then when we ran short of chairs, simply sat at the doorstep and made a quick hash of a 45 minute trip. With a cup of tea and some very funny stories from the past!!!

Back in Kolkata after a few hours of visiting my parents. My brother in law and nephew were already waiting for me. We went up to the lounge and had a great time catching up. Usually my nephew does not talk much. I think I was able to get him to open his mouth by first giving him a math puzzle. (Like his dad, he is a nerd). He felt comfortable enough to ask me how to manage his time. Apparently, he is not being able to cope with all his studies and all that.

Wrong move!! You do not ask your soon-to-be-54 uncle about time. Not this uncle, at any rate. I don’t think he knew what hit him when I started with the old Latin phrase “Memento Mori” (Remember, you will die). Certainly, my brother in law started downing his wine much faster!!

Long story short, by the time I was done with our chat, my famously reticent nephew and I were discussing how he could ask a girl from his class out!! My brother in law was drinking up faster than you could cry “Uncle”!!!

So much so, by the time the evening was done and it was picture time, my brother in law sat on the sofa hand rest instead of in the sofa!! 🙂

BTW, Sous Chef Susanta Dey and visiting chef Shabbir had cooked up an impressive Hyderabadi dinner for us!