The advantage of meeting all those relatives was that I could ask them a lot of questions about our ancestors. And finally, I have put three family trees together – two for my paternal grandparents’ and maternal grandparents’ side and one for Sharmila’s maternal grandparents’ side. One goes 5 generations up (from our generation), one goes 4 generations up and one goes 3 generations up. The one I have not been able to put together is Sharmila’s paternal grandparents’ side.

Yet.

I think I have made the most of my parents’ absence this trip!! I wanted to get this put together for posterity before deaths take away all the sources of information from me.

The goal was to visit as many relatives as I could since I did not have to be with my parents any more. Let’s see who all I met this time:

Sharmila’s and my immediate family members: 13
First cousins: 10
First cousins, once removed: 9
First cousins, twice removed: 2

I am marking this a “Mission Accomplished”

Arrived in Delhi for my onward flight with about 8 hours to spare. Was enough time to meet yet another first cousin, first cousin once removed and a first cousin twice removed. In fact saw the twice removed fellow for the first time in my life!

It is pretty evident that some things have not changed for me… the curiosity about two wheels, the disdain for hair on the head, the comfort with shorts… These two pictures are separated by over 55 years!!

The underlings pulling the weight of the organization and the boss overseeing from the top 🙂

I was pacing up and down to keep myself active while waiting for my flight in Durgapur security zone. Suddenly, I saw most of the folks get up and walk towards the gate. Which was surprising, since there no announcements that preceded that. What was even from unintuitive that the gates were nowhere near where everybody was.

That is when I realized that the folks were excitedly watching our incoming flight land and then walked up closer to the glass panels to take all sorts of pictures.

Is that sign prohibiting you from taking your shoes off and go bare foot or from putting your feet up on the wallboard? I am in bulkhead on Indigo flight from Durgapur to Delhi.

Have you ever seen this anywhere else?

She stood at the gate and kept waving at us till she could see us no more.

I do not think I have any other picture where my mother in law is actually smiling while a picture is being taken! It does not matter whether I am in the picture or not!