Everybody
has somebody or something that give them that 'feeling' of togetherness. The
sense that these people will always have your back no matter what or these
things will always be around to cheer you up at the far ends of the
earth.
Real
togetherness for me is when you spend quality time together (not limited to be
physically present) and are brave enough to be yourself completely. Real togetherness
is not determined by the no of years you have spent together, more than
quantity it is quality. Real togetherness can also be achieved using simple
telephonic conversations, by meeting once in a month or once in a year for that
matter.
It's
not easy to come together, to stay together and more importantly to get back
together again after a fight or miscommunication. In this fast pace life,
nobody has time for casual/agenda less meetings, people meet on some relative's
marriages, exchange greetings and the cycle continues until the next marriage.
Our
story of spending time together, crafted by our grandfather.
We used to live in a
joint family and frequent fights were very common, after observing that our
Dadaji, the eldest of the family (who was also a retired teacher) devised a master
plan with an idea of collaborating everybody in some activity. It was summers
of 2010s when everybody was busy in their own world when Dadaji announced the
plan for the next day.
Everybody was asked
to complete their daily work by noon. Everybody gathered by 12:00 sharp, dadaji
took the center stage and announced “All of you have to make our family tree,
branched out from my father, pics of whom are here. Include information &
pics about our relatives, my father, mother and siblings. I don’t think I need to help you with the
pics apart my father & mother, because they aren’t on Facebook. Complete
this task if you want to have lunch”.
To our surprise we
managed to finish the task in 2hrs. Everybody had a big smile on their face,
realizing how big our family is; except from the kids who were astonished. Our Dadaji came, saw, smiled, look at each
one of us and asked us to come for lunch. We had a lavish lunch together which
was ordered by Dadaji. Immediately after that, we were given seeds of different
plants which we need to sow, give water and protect. We understood our next
task, we took the seeds and planted them individually, every seed has
individual’s name written on it, we were asked to protect and nourish it.
In the evening
everybody was given a responsibility of preparing individual dish for the
dinner. Even now people are getting busier and busier we have and always will
maintain this tradition. We have a promise to fulfill, a promise we made to our
grandfather, a promise we will fulfill at any cost.
A wise man once said “Lost
time is never found again”.
