The Roots...

When I was in school, we had an interesting (then) time pass during silent hours. Each of us would draw our family structure beginning from our grand parents. The tree would include my father’s siblings, their kids, grand kids and also for maternal relatives. Of all my friends, mine would be the one with most number of branches (well my grand parents had 6) and I was very proud of it. I am the third generation and fourth generation were of my age (yeah, my father was the youngest one and the age difference between the eldest & youngest was some 15 yrs). The family branched out and spread across countries. We were all very close knitted (my age group) and spent most of the summers together. I still remember I just wouldn’t be able to study properly for the last exam as I used to be too excited to meet my then best friends – who were my nieces.

But as we grew older, we got busy with our own lives – some got married, some gone to work, some gone for studies and it was highly impossible to meet due to various circumstances. We did occasionally meet during weddings or any other family functions (if invited). Gradually we grew apart and we had no much mutual interests. I & one of my nieces were literally inseparable then, hardly spoke with each other later. I sensed that we lost the mutual interest and itz never gonna be same again. Few were always in touch through emails from whom I was getting all the updates about the branches of my family. Till then I was not close with my mom’s niece (my cousin sister). As we grow older, we realize who is really important and who is really caring for us. It was then we three (I, my sister & my brother) became very close and I noticed we had more fun – just the three of us rather than being in any other crowd.

Well, why did I start writing this blog? Well, this is what happened on a Saturday morning, I was too bored to browse or read and suddenly I remembered this family tree play. So I thought I would draw one. I started as usual with father’s side and as I proceeded, there were many blanks to be filled as I didn’t know their names. (I am talking about 5th generation). Some I remember the names but not the faces; some I knew only the existence but neither name nor face. I wonder I would ever meet them or would they ever come to know about me. Even the ones I grew up with, how well do they know about my family – me, raaz, in-laws? There were many times I would think I should be in touch with everyone, I should call them all. But I thinking further I understood, even if I call, there won’t be anything to talk beyond 3 minutes.

Tree has expanded a lot and we almost forget that we have the same roots. Now the roots have long gone, each branch became a root and grew apart, forgetting/ignoring each others’ existence and are we still a family together?