Joint Family.

I keep writing a lot about family. Honestly, I love my family. So much that I can do anything to be with them.

              My elder sister took off to Ireland six months ago. When she was here, we were never on the same page. We used to fight all the time. She used to tease me and I used to get angry. At times I feel, we are just the same. We have never had great friends at school, we always took what we wanted, we work really hard, we keep secretes, we are always in competition. I hate her but I love her. She always complained that I never gave her my special hand-written letter and so I am mentioning her in this blog!

            Family values are no longer taught to kids. People have started living in nuclear families. My family on the other hand is a joint family. So, I get to see my cousins every day. We fight, we tease each other, we plan together, we cook and we eat, we have Saturday nights, we discuss like intellectuals, we talk about investments and above all, we never let the others know that we love them.  

             I wrote this because I wanted to tell you that living in a joint family isn’t that bad. People think joint families demand a lot of adjustment and yes, they do. You have to make a few sacrifices too. But there is a lot of free drama! Trust me, when all of us get together for our family lunch or dinner, we all go crazy. Everybody is ready to pull each other’s leg. And I feel really proud to say this that over the past 1 year I have been successful enough to make my army of lamers. My family has been tolerating my lame jokes right from March 13, 2020. And in that course, they have themselves started cracking jokes. I remember an incident roughly. We were all seated for lunch. I must have asked my Daadi something and the reply I received shocked me. She joked! She cracked a joke! That wasn’t something that used to happen even once in a blue moon (as far as I remember). I saw the changes I had caused. I felt like a real change-maker. After a year and a month, every person in my family has learnt to have a banter every now and then.

              A lot of people say that corona virus has been a bane. But I feel that it has given us an opportunity to know our families a bit better. For those who do not live with their chaacha – chaachi, daada – daadi, bade paa – badi maa, maybe next time when you meet them, just be with them. I am sure you’ll have a great time listening to their stories and telling them yours. 

                                                    – Shrishti Soni

                                                         (Divy)