Deep Ties

  I have always believed that laughter makes the world go around. Within the family, we have our own jokes that keep us smiling when we are together. We call them our ‘jokelies’ and it was our maternal uncle who started us off on them. We continued with the tradition and even today, when my sisters and I get together, there are special jokes that never fail to elicit a smile.  This time in Johannesburg, it came as a pleasant surprise when I found the kids cracking their own set of jokes. There are times when Zo, Sam and I have fun conversations. They come up with the funniest of jokes. There is a song with all these jokes titled 'Dad Jokes' by Elise Ecklund. Here are a few samples that cracked me up! Zo – “Why can’t a skeleton skydive? Because it doesn’t have guts.” Sam: “Why can’t eggs tell jokes? Because they crack each other up.”                                       ...

  “Eat, drink and make merry… for tomorrow you may diet!” This axiom is very true when we are in Johannesburg. Everything here is about fun, food and family, and we even have a WhatsApp group that says so. Less than a week and we have already had a taste (pun intended!) of how the food scene for the next fifty days is going to be. It started with the anniversary braai last week, of course. Zo’s birthday saw us all heading to Picanha’s for a long but enjoyable lunch. Since it was a gloomy, rainy day, the children had to forgo the play area that was outside and stick to the small little area within. Luckily, there was a ‘Make Your Own Pizza’ in which the two littlest ones donned chefs' aprons and caps and chose their pizza toppings. They sat down and decorated their pizzas with bacon, ham and chicken strips (any two) and cheese, of course. The pizzas were then baked in wood fire ovens and voila, their lunch was ready. The older two preferred to have chicken wings and spaghetti ...

  Nine years ago, D Day dawned for us, the day that our little Zo was born. April the 4th! I still remember the evening when P and V called us on a video call in which V's parents were also there. When they broke the news to us that they were going to be parents, our hearts swelled with joy and immense gratitude to the Almighty. We were to be grandparents for the first time, and it made us feel very special indeed. I remember crying profusely in joy. I reached Johannesburg in March, determined to make the most of the time with P. My better half would join us later as he did not have leave.  Those days were special when P and I would talk for hours together, on her childhood, the way she was when we were young parents, and how life had taught us the art of bringing up a child. On April 3rd, we all sat together, our hearts beating in unison. Since it was to be a Caesarean delivery, we already knew that our little one would emerge the next morning. At 4 am, P felt some pain...

  Years ago, when we came to Johannesburg, P and V had a beautiful, grave cat, a Russian Blue, which they named Tyrion, both being Game of Thrones aficionados. Tyrion was a sedate creature who would sit by my laptop watching me type in my stories, and occasionally, saunter over my keyboard when he needed attention. Tyrion - Photo Credits: Priyanka Menon Rao When life became a bit too serene, P and V decided to turn their lives upside down by bringing in Bronn (again from Game of Thrones), a tempestuous Labrador, who from day one, decided that serenity was not for him. He would chew up everything in sight and it was a nightmare leaving him alone at home because there was no knowing what next he would destroy. “He’ll settle down!” was the general verdict of people who had not experienced the flurry of violent activity that Bronn was capable of. Years went by as P and V tried all kinds of methods to curb his animal spirits and turn him into something resembling a normal dog. Til...

  We landed up in Johannesburg just in time for P's and V's 12th wedding anniversary. Our memories flew back to those four days of revelry when our only daughter tied the knot. We began with the Ganesh Puja which started the occasion on an auspicious note, the haldi that is more of a North Indian custom, and a sangeet , replete with music, dance, drama and fun, culminating in the wedding itself, followed by a reception hosted by the bridegroom’s side in which the bride and groom were ‘roasted’, as the term now goes. The 12th anniversary was an excuse to host a braai for the whole family. As usual, the braai master was V, who did the honours with his varieties of moist meat and savoury sausages replete with compound butter, while P laid out a course of buttery potato salad and green vegetables. Rolls toasted on the grill completed the repast, leaving people licking their lips and looking forward to a welcome siesta.                  ...

March ended on an anticipatory note! We were off to Johannesburg to be with our daughter P and son-in-love V and of course, our two little grandchildren, Zo and Sam. With life having played a hyperactive part to delay our packing till the day before we left, there we were, chucking gifts and clothes, required (and unrequired) medicines and footwear into our boxes.  The anticipation grew as we got into the cab to the airport. Of course, even if we had left things behind, there was very little we could actually do. The excitement kept us both going till we got into the aircraft. Emirates got us in on time, but once there, there was a delay of more than an hour as they had to offload six passengers, and what was more painful, their pieces of luggage, which must have taken some doing, considering that they must have been ensconced deep alongside a multitude of suitcases and odd shaped parcels.  The flight was uneventful, luckily, except for the fact that we were in two s...