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old stories to learn from

This December, everyone from our family( By family i mean my great grandfather's, all the sons and daughters,who in turn with their sons and daughters, and who again in turn with their sons and daughters, and for some of them who have, in turn with their sons ! ) was invited to Bombay for rashmi didi's marriage and then everyone came to Nagpur for nhana dadaji's 75th birthday.It was a grand function.
As is the case with these functions we all gathered a night before, to talk talk and talk.Everyone had so much to say and so many people to talk with.Especially i, living away from my family for 6 years of studies, was too overwhelmed to meet everyone.
So ya,we talked and i felt very lucky to be able to hear stories of past from my grandfathers and ter sisters, who all have the following in common- too many stories to share and too good a way of telling them. Some of them i mention here, others are fr me to know.

Subhadra dadiji told this one- "When we were young ,say about 12-13 years old, we all lived in a big house with everybody living together (about 35 people). And everyday all the children used to have their lunch together.Sitting in rows- one row of boys and another of girls facing each other,at a distance so that ladies of the house can move freely in between to serve food. The kind of arrangement you can see in pangats.
Now, so much was the differentiation between girls and boys, that when everyone wanted something sweet at the end of the meal, the boys were given ghee and sugar, whereas the girls were given jaggery alone.
(Then she laughs and says) But the funny thing is that they did not know then, that jaggery, though cheap has better nutritious value that sugar. So girls turned out to be smarter than the boys and are placed equally with boys !"


More stories to follow when the mood comes.

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