Family Wrath

You can choose your friends but you can't choose your relatives. Dear Lord how true that is and sometimes the truth hurts. I think we are given family as a challenge to see just how much we can put up with in life before we become adults and then test how much of patience you have till the other adults before you die. Now die is a hars word so lets say they are called by god to rest in heaven.

My Mother was the 7th of 9 children and my Dad was the 4nd of 11 and me the defenseless younger of the two sons to deal with whatever you call it. If you count it only Ashrafs are more than 67 in number across the globe unless few more have born or died which I am not aware of and each one of these mighty individual is worthy of driving the world insane. Now don’t start imagining the catastrophe it brings during family gathering...not yet...

I have aunt who couldn't make a move without reading her etiquette book. Seriously she had everything thing indexed for weddings and funerals and you name it. She is a living encyclopedia of all kinds of ritual and customs in any kind of occasion.

Two of my aunts are so much into Saas Bahu(Mother-in-law Vs Daughter-in-law) TV serials that if you DARED walk into their homes during the show you had to keep your mouth shut and act dead while the serial is on, like you're going to disturb an actor on the TV screen?

I have a lot of cousins across the globe, one is still hung up on music of the fifties like nothing has happened since, one who lives like a recluse, a few who refuse to admit they were born into working class families and try to act like they are the ones going to fart in Buckingham Palace.

When grandmother was alive we used to have those annual family gatherings. Vacation dedicated to Blah Blah bickering and then few more Blah Blah and more bickering. It always amazed me then how, what people were talking about at the start of things was the topic we ended with, topics always ran a full circle. Then there is this issue of family history where we always ended up talking about things that happened ages ago and no one remembers all of it in the first place. Oh yes we used to dig up dirt not realizing that someday we will be buried under it.

Madness still remains our key forte but yes the great Ashraf gatherings definitely came to an end after my grand mother died.