Moorthy-Clan Meet (Read: Family Reunion)

For the uninitiated, Moorthy is my pious father in law. After seeing his seven daughters and a bright son (Kannan) reasonably well settled in life, he departed a happy soul. The children formed the Moorthy-Clan group to perpetuate his memory.

The eldest daughter is in Dubai. One daughter is no more. All the others six families are settled in Bangalore.                 

                                            

Kannan and Chitra (now a safe bet to hail them hospitality specialists) organized an Adda at their place last Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. The occasion? Their elder son, Vignesh, is moving shortly to US to do Masters in Human Computer Interaction Design (HCI). What is HCI from a common man’s perspective? I shall share that with you no sooner than I get to know it myself.

Come his Brigade Gateway home. We entered with guilt for being late, more so when Kannan had announced the timings for each item: 11 to 12 tea/coffee or juice with assorted snacks; 12 to 1 lunch, 2 to 3 dessert…ending with Kachori, Samosa and tea at 5 pm. We felt happy when we saw less pairs of sandals at his doorstep. Yes the house was half full.

But it didn’t take long, either for the house to be full or for the session to warm up. The group heaped praise on the eldest present, Lalitha Akka (Aunty, for SFVians), for her untiring contribution on the Narayaneeyam front, and me for walking away with a Ramraj linen shirt and superior cotton dhoti for her efforts.

“Saraswathy Akka,” hailed Kannan, “you are the luckiest among the lot having both sons and their families and you in the same complex but in three different apartments.” With an infectious smile she accepted the compliment.

Uma and Ramani seldom miss a family function. Early next morning Ramani had to leave for Kolkata for a Board meeting, and Uma to Ramani’s sister’s place to be with her on her husband’s first anniversary, before both took off to UK. But they both believe that it is the busiest person who finds time for everything. Kudos. Personally, I wanted Ramani to be on my side for Anthakshari, he  being a ready-reckoner for old songs – nay, Mohammad Rafi songs.

It was however the Chandra-Chandru duo who stole the show in Anthakshari. It was difficult to judge whose collection was more - fantastic. They shared with us the gist of their recent Germany trip, and the planned Thailand trip, let alone the intervening half-a-dozen long inter-state domestic drives.

Shanthy was doubly joyous what with the newly married Puja and her charming Sandeep staying on for the full term, and Sneha having just attended the convocation for her Engineering graduation and set to join officially the multinational where she worked as an intern. During the individual song-session, Shanthy was thrilled as Sandeep sang the PB Sreenivas Tamil number, “Kalangalil Aval Vasantham,,,” passing in between stealthy glances at Puja to convey that it was in her honour. I am not sure if, with her limited Tamil vocabulary, Puja got the message - or it was just another song for her. If so, poor Sandeep, love’s labours lost.

Mohan and Ramesh took charge of the audio-video and dumb charade sections. Dhivya and Aarti competed fiercely in Anthakshari releasing their Tamil and Hindi stocks incessantly. Their three lovely kids meanwhile quietly made sure that Kannan and Chitra had enough work for the next three days setting the house in order.    

Vignesh looked lost. Maybe he was visualizing in advance the University premises, the room he might occupy, the class he will get into… As for Vinayak, it was sadness and ecstasy combined. Sad because Vignesh is now more a friend, and ecstatic because Volkswagen is all his hereafter.

We boarded metro for nack home. The mild jerk-stops, and jerk-starts at each station helped the assorted snacks of the morning, the mouth-watering Paneer subzi, Daal Makhani, and the mixed vegetable of lunch, the assorted ice cream topped with Gulab jamun of dessert, the kachori and samosa with tea to wash them down, and the Tirunelveli halwa and the Srivalliputhur peda began to rearrange themselves within.  “To be on the safe side, back home we shall have Ramdev Baba’s digestive powder in warm water,” suggested the lady of the house. I agreed. Ek ne kahi, duju ne maani; Nanak kahe dono gyani”.