A sweet and nostalgic ride
Growing up in the 80s and in the 90s Assam, in our Assamese household and Assamese culture Pehi(Dad's younger sister), Mahi(Mom's Younger Sister), Jethai (Mom's elder sister), Mama(Mom's younger or older brother), Khura(Dad's Younger brother), were such an integral part. Thinking about life and the time we spent together brought a whirlpool of memories, love, warmth, and kinship. Bridging, building, bonding, teaching, and learning together with those people wove the delicate and cushiony comfort of a blanket called family. Even though I grew up in a small family, all these people together made up our one large family. After Ma and Deuta, they were equally associated with our lives and upbringing. They assimilate in our happiness and our sadness equally. Like fulfilling little wishes, as getting the best seasonal mango from the market, stitching dress for you by hands, celebrating festivity to weddings together. Every summer vacation spending time together, packing food while returning so that you can eat on the way home, collecting your first published write up, helping you buy your wedding trousseau, helping you choose the right lip color when you are shaking with fever coming home to see you right away, the list of selfless love is endless. They stand by as our pillars of support and we all faced Deuta’s demise together.
Looking back at those times and people always enriches my life with great memories and happy momentum. If I consider my life as a beautiful string of pearls, then those people are one pearl each which completes the string.
Just a few months back lost my dad, I lost my Jethai the other day as well. The irony of life is, it goes on but without a loved one a flavor is missing in life. Jethai was the epitome of love and affection and nothing can fill her void. Her heart and home always open for family and friends.
These wonderful people are like a shadow in the hot Sun or May shower in the barren days when it comes to the difficult journey called life. At the same time, I wonder in those days forget smartphones we did not have even a cell phone yet our chords of heart string together so well. How we communicate with each other understood each other no advancement of technology could match. In the modern and claustrophobic city life, we are losing bit by bit the essence of those Khura-khuri, Peha-pehi, Mama-Mami, Moha-Mahi, Jethu-jethai in our lives, and the perfect picture of the extended family silently fading away with changing time. On the positive note legacy of love still remains.
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