Enthralling Trails

“Grow old with me! The best is yet to be.”  ―  Robert Browning “Grow old with me! The best is yet to be.” ―  Robert Browning The stork visited us with a baby girl upgrading us to a rank further ahead in life. The baby is the first in the family and a cynosure of all eyes. She is as perfect as a picture and a ripple in our regime. While I embraced the baby, I slithered into the role of a grandaunt, and my memories hurled me back to a few decades. This was the time when my niece, the baby’s mother was born. We are three sisters and a brother whose mother left for the heavenly abode in a haste. When my eldest sister decided to stay with us a few more years after her marriage our joy knew no bounds and it accentuated when we came to know that we would soon turn into uncles and aunts. We looked around for help but could not find anyone to substitute my mother’s role during the difficult time and so she was ushered quickly to her in-laws when the baby was due. It also...

Arshu started learning Kung fu, a Chinese Martial art as a training for self-defence at the age of eight. Arshu was a cherub child with dark straight hair that touched her waist. Her eyes matched her dark black hair that complemented her bronzed skin. She was lean and tall, and her strides were long depicting the haste to accomplish a great deal. Her agile movements illustrated a quickness in her movements to support the Martial Arts. She was simple in her tastes and preferred to remain silent even when her friends yelled and shrieked joyously to display their happiness. Her teachers had to intervene in her solitude by asking her to be expressive like others. Arshu never felt the need to squall or yell, she would just look on smilingly through the numerous story books that she held on to read. Her interest in sports was overwhelming. One could see a PT Usha come alive when she ran the 100-metre race or observe a young Sindhu while she blasted the badminton cork in the court. She wa...