129. Childhood Reminisces – Cousin Mania😊

My grandfather (father’s father) had 5 sons and a daughter.   That meant I had a deluge of cousins, growing up.  Except for one uncle, who chose to reside in South India, all the others lived in Delhi.  My grandmother (mother’s mother) also had 7 sisters and 2 brothers, excluding herself.  So, that gave me a lot of uncles and aunts, a few of them, even younger to me!!  And when these uncles/aunts had kids, you can imagine the scenario.  Now I have cousins right from a 13-year-old to 60+ year old😊!!

This blog is about my cousins with whom I grew up in Delhi.  Since my father and one of his brothers lived together, there were already 2 of my cousins staying in the same house as mine, in addition to my brother. There was one more uncle who was staying in another block in the same area, which added one more tally to my cousin list.  There was one more uncle living in another area, which increased the tally by 3 more.  My aunt was also living in Delhi and that added the cousin list by 2 more. A total of 10 cousins in all, including me.

Interesting part of this was that when one cousin was in 12^th standard, then we will have cousins studying in 11^th, 10^th, 9^th, 8^th and 7^th, at the same time😊!!  There was just 1 standard gap between these 6 people, even though there might only have been a couple of months gap between their birth dates!!  Out of the 6, 4 studied in the same school.  That meant the books and uniforms were passed down so that we can save on those recurring costs!!  And naturally meant that we played together all the time, whenever we met. The eldest and the youngest cousin were girls, not counted in the above six!  They were either too elder or too younger to play with us😊.  The 2^nd eldest cousin was 6 years elder to the one in the 12^th.  And since he was doing ICWA and CA, he was always studying!!  Another cousin joined Army college when we were very young and used to come to Delhi only when he got leave. 

We all (6 cousins) used to meet during festivals or some special occasions.  During this time, mostly we would be playing cricket.  And we all took a cricketer’s name and kept it for ourselves😊.  One cousin became Ian Botham. I became Kapil Dev.  Then we had Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Srikkanth. I don’t remember the name for one more cousin.  Actually, he also cannot recollect his cricketer name now😊!!

During the get-together, we used to finish our lunch in a hurry and go to the nearby lane/park for playing cricket.  We had one cousin, whose cricketer name is not known now, who was very slow in eating😊.  He used to say that he relishes the food and hence will take time to eat.  While we would be in the 3^rd rice (saambhar, rasam and curd being the three rices, in that order), he would still be eating the first one😊!!  We will be finishing our food fast and go out to play.  If we had more people for playing, we will make teams and will ensure that this cousin was put in the batting team.  Reason being, while he finished the food, some 2-3 people would have been “out” in cricket from his team.  He can then come and bat and then field for full innings.  In case the entire team was “out”, then he will only field as he took so much time in eating😊!! If we had put him in fielding team, then he will skip fielding and only come for batting😊.  In case we don’t have more players, and only we 6 are available, then his batting would come in 6^th position, as he would have been required to field for some time before coming for batting😊!!

Obviously while playing, we will be making a lot of noise.  When we use to play near one of our cousin’s house, who was always studying, our noise will disturb him and he will come out and shout to us to go somewhere else and play😊.  Then we will revert to playing with no noise.  But you can’t play without noise, right?  This will make him again come out and shout to us😊 and then we will look for alternate places to play!!  

Depending on the number of people available for play, we will invent new rules of the game.  We will have leg-side runs only, or off-side runs only or back-side runs only😊.  Or only runs will be counted and not boundaries.  If the ball reaches the boundary, the person was declared “out”😊!!

The cousin who joined Army, used to come to Delhi on vacations.  He would come to our house too, to stay for a couple of days with us.  During that time, he used to eat a lot😊.  While I would be having around 2-3 rotis for lunch and would be full, he would finish some 12-13 rotis without batting an eyelid😊!!  Similar scenario for dosas and idlis!!  Since my mother would be preparing and serving all of it right then, he would enjoy and eat all of them!!  This was an ode to his stamina!!

Today, all of these cousins are spread across cities.  Myself and the cousin who doesn’t remember his “cricketer” name are in Hyderabad.  My brother is in Jakarta (Indonesia). 2 cousins are in Delhi and one each in Bhopal, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Bengaluru and Singapore!!  We meet very rarely and are in touch through WhatsApp or a couple of phone calls that I make to wish them on their birthdays or anniversary dates😊!! 

Cheers!!

Today’s Observation

The politician’s problem is that he can’t see which is worse – the state of affairs or the affairs of the State😊