Visits from cousins and grown up sons are always one of the best things to happen. Kayathri paid a visit last week. Shyam was visiting home after one and a half years. Kids who were petted and pampered are today, grown up moms and big boys, nay men, and I suppose the feeling of joy in seeing them must've been the feeling that the elders went through when my generation was growing up. 

I keep thinking how strange it must be to chithis, who tended to me when I was a little one at aaya's house , combing my hair, putting the uniform on me, powdering my face, ministering to the heat boils that erupted all over my body 

( I remember their standard remedy for a stubborn, pus filled boil would be to rub some iodex on a betel leaf and tie it over the boil overnight and voila, the boil would break open and the pus would drain out!).

Today, I'm a mother-in-law and life seems to have come a full cycle. However, the cycle is endless, as the young ones keep growing up, getting married, rearing families, carving  careers for themselves, savouring in the delight of getting together on every occasion possible. 

God bless us all.