A Pune Gathering of Cousins

 On June 1st, we met with cousins who were available in Pune. The purpose was two-fold. To celebrate the birthday of our youngest aunt, mother of our host Jyotsna, and to remember Nikhil, my nephew whom we lost unexpectedly in a helicopter accident in Atlanta USA. The second came out of the blue, and we were still coming to terms with it.

Some of the cousins/families present. 

Nikhil is sitting, left, in the pic above. That was my Mom's 88th birthday in 2017, at Pune. His parents are behind him.

A Gathering of Cousins

 I have several, since only my Mom alone had six sisters and a brother. And we have had many gatherings of cousins, almost each year except during the pandemic. So it was one more, that happened recently. A pretty good turnout, in which I tried a shot of Chinese Whisky ( a pic of the bottle follows), and we had a lot of food, banter and antakshari. A couple of nieces were in attendance too.

Most of the attending party. Two aunts were also there.

Grand nephew Khayal.. who I met for the first time.

Taking pics is a challenge. My brother at it- above.

Another niece.. Aparna, with Milind and me.

The Chinese whisky tastes a bit like Feni, but comes in a cute bottle 

2013 Ends at Girivan

These pics are from a year-end retreat that we cousins try and do at least once  a year. This time it was in a resort called Girivan close to Paud, near Pune. Had a relaxing time, played some cricket, took walks, enjoyed the scenery amidst some single malt and singular reminiscences, and were fully entertained by the newest kid on the block, Maya, my niece from Down Under -second pic is hers.  My brother Satish was there from Atlanta in the U.S., on a visiting 'assignment'- to have fun. Bakul, another cousin and her family made it from Peoria, Illinois too. Someone had brought Oreo cookies from the U.S., and a niece who made the recent ads for Oreo with Ranbir Kapoor was grilled on how she colour-coordinated her clothes with his! All in all, great fun. We also celebrated three-four cousins turning fifty with some jokes about their memory-can't remember those, as I already turned fifty some years ago.