On the 5th May am pushing off on a much needed holiday, Am off to nanital. To visit my in laws. Am I excited? You bet I am. Haven’t met them in 8 months and now we’ll all get together a big family get together…He won’t be there, no leave, but well one enjoys the joys one gets.

So there will be my ma, and dad, who haven’t yet quite figured what exactly to do with me. I don’t fit into any mould they had of DIL’S…not the good ones and not the bad one’s either. I am kinda goofy and there isn’t any mould that fits goofy for daughters in laws. I don’t listen to everything they say. I do my thing more often than not. But I love them completely. I have never had any hassles about touching their feet as often as it pleases them because blessings is something I hoard for that day when I might need them. I refused to take the ghoongat after the first few days of my marriage, claiming that I didn’t know how half of them looked like and wouldn’t be able to recognize them , but I took the blessed ghoongat when I went to the native village, it was cold there the kind of cold that can freeze the nose off your face…so ghoongat was welcome, I didn’t know how to cook at all, but willingly learned from my MIL and patiently heard out all her admonishing (I never argue with experts. EVER.) I never crib about them, which takes my ma aback quite a bit. And I insist she hugs me too when she hugs my son…so over the years, they’ve grown to love me (I kinda didn’t give them much choice) even if I baffle them. I once told them, in my last life I must have done a lot of punya to deserve them and they must have sinned to get me! To which my Ma still has no reply! LOL

Then there’s Nina my friend, my twin soul, she is sakha’s younger sister who is exactly like sakha. Exactly! Except she doesn’t have all the tiresome qualities that go with being a man. She is thankfully a woman. So it’s no wonder that we love each other tons. And I have more fun with her than I have with sakha sometimes. We paint together, talk of everything under the sun, shop (me kicking and screaming, and she laughing and dragging me) we try out each others clothes (haven’t ever been able to do that with sakha), we talk of our boyfriends from college (Am not mad enough to do that with sakha!), We cook together, laugh together, read together, in fact ma says we act quite like conjoined twins except that Nina is 5ft 8’’ tall and I’m just a tiny 5.2. But I am so looking forward to meeting her, and watching her face when I give her the gifts am carrying for her. Goofy kinda gifts.

Then there’s Sudha, she is elder to me but younger than sakha so that makes her kinda younger than me or some such funny thing which is cool, Sudha is an art of living teacher and an serene, calm, composed, collected lady. That is perhaps why I have this irresistible urge to ruffle her feathers. But I love her a lot and curiously feel very protective towards her; she has overcome a lot of odds in her life, and now is a strong person, so am  proud of her! We often sit in the garden early in the morning (when she can drag me out of bed that early) and talk of God, Good, Life, while I sip my tea and she her herbal tea. There’s sadly No one who drinks coffee there so early mornings are tea…and evenings coffee for me.

Then there’s Aju, my brother in law who’s going to be there on holiday too. He is so much younger than me and actually closer to me than to sakha. More kinda my younger brother. Ever since he told me he was in love and I convinced everyone that He be allowed to marry the girl…That is a very long story…some other day that one.

We've been in so many scrapes together that we can spend a month talking about them and not repeat a one. He is also the one who is curiously very protective of me and pampers me a lot, treats me like a princess, makes me feel kinda special…

Then there’s Veena, his wife. She is …as different from me as you can get. Where I talk a mile a minute, she is quiet. Where I say what ever comes to my head without censoring (sometimes I do censor) she measures what ever little she says. Where as I am goofy, she is quiet, demure, sweet. She is impossibly sweet, I have so totally tried to corrupt her, but she just giggles and looks at me with awe as if I am some trapeze artist who’s doing some tightrope walking trick, and doesn’t budge from her basic nature. She is what they call a gentle soul, to my wild one, and honestly I am glad, my in laws deserved her kind of a daughter in law, after having had to deal with my kind…

There is this one person who told Ma once, your elder daughter in law is radio mirchi, and younger is pushpak (a silent movie).

Then there’s Anu, Veena and Aju’s daughter, she is a total sweetheart. She steals my heart every time she smiles at me. She makes me sigh every times she follows me on her tiny feet calling me Tai, nanna love Tai. (We all call anu Nanna). I could pick her up in my arms and dance and forget the world for a while… she is my angel. I totally spoil her.

Give her piggy back rides, and sing my off key songs which make her laugh and make everyone else wince and shut their ears.

There’ll be Ma’s cooking, and dad’s gardening. I’ll go gardening with him, He writes, so I’ll get to read all his stories, I’ll get to cook for people whom I love and who love what ever I cook. I’ll get my hair oiled by Ma, and give her one of my massages (which she grumbles she doesn’t need but secretly loves.) I can give her my reiki treatments, and gossip with her late in the nights while I give her a foot rub, she loves those, and I love giving her those, cause these are the feet which work from dawn till dusk for all of us. She will not wake me up early knowing I like sleeping a little late, she’ll hand me my cuppa tea in bed at 7. She’ll cook things I love eating. She’ll go shopping for coffee now that she knows I’ll be there…Those feet need all the foot rubs in the world.

I’ll get to love, and be loved in return even as goofy as I am. I’ll be with my Family.

And I’ll be away from all you people for almost a month and a half…will you miss me a little?