I should have seen it coming, in India itself. But of course I was a bit too busy. After all I had precisely three days after my visa interview , in which to leave my job, shop for my effects and fold up my tents- well not really- but leave my little one –room- apartment( see I no longer say flat) in a hand-over-to-the-landlady-intact condition and fly out across the seven seas. So you can excuse me for not having been so perceptive when the first email came.
“My dear little sister, “it said ( and I was an only child till now)”I am so pleased to hear about this. I always knew you were brilliant. We must certainly catch up once you are here.” signed off with a name I did not recognize. The recognition came later- after all one does not really remember ones obscure cousins four times removed whom one has only vaguely heard off. But my “sister” was persistent.
Never mind the fact that she would not have been able to recognize me in a room full of strangers, she had so much of catching up to do- so there were regular emails, and even a phone call or two. I mean it must have taken quite a feat to trace a telephone number within two days of my getting it- and it being registered in my room mate’s name. “How is Taijee” the cultured voice gushed. Hers or mine, I wondered as I let small talk take over.
And she was not the only one. Suddenly I was part of quite a clan. Fourth cousins five times removed, obscure uncles and Aunts. Those who called, emailed, “Beta do come over, we have to meet you” No matter that they will not know “beta” from scores of other betas on the street.
Maa, you had never told me we had such a large and loving family. And of course by association, you are also getting to meet them all. Folks who suddenly recalled their “favorite” niece, like you emailed to me the other day! Funny is it not, that I do not seem to remember any such avuncular plenty. Do you?
And friends. How come we never knew of this extended clan of family friends scattered over the length and the breadth of the United States. I mean, you should not have worried at all. I am in such safe hands. Friends, relatives, acquaintance everywhere. And here I was suffering from blues. Of being alone!
Do come over they gush…Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas…at this rate I will be here till the end of my days meeting these loving people.
And also the ones I left behind. Left behind, oh no! One little email on my class e-groups “Change of coordinates” and my mail box is flooded. Poor yahoo never learned to deal with this deluge of emails. Long forgotten class mates, who never bothered, except to call up when they needed their degree certificates pulled of the tangle of Delhi university red-tape urgently, suddenly sent volumes on “How wonderful to hear from you. We MUST keep in touch” as if I was solely responsible for communication drying up. I do wonder how I will fish out their degrees from DU – I am on the exact opposite side of FMS now.
Midst this cornucopia of acquaintances who re-surface( I tend to think of it rather morbidly as floating up to the top- I will not use Lake metaphors again, I promise) acquaintances, and new found relatives- true the relationship is complicated( aunts third cousins.. or was it uncles third aunts cousin.. or.. I give up) I should have my days quite filled up. Don’t I have invitations for every holiday from now to 2008? And the days in between should be beautifully occupied composing replies to the “How are you doing” and “what is going on”
Why, I wonder pulling my fleece jacket closer to myself against the chill November wind, do home and that warmth and caring seem a world away?
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