My Paradise

And the biggest star in my galaxy is my family.

Believe me, pondering over the traits of my people at home is as exploratory and cumbersome as counting each breath you take in a day.

The reddest star in my scintillating world is Suresh Pushkarna, my Papa. He's had all the masti in his youth before he turned into a serious sophisticated man who now thinks his biggest task on the earth is to grant wishes to his children. I said this star was red because that's the colour he changes to when I don't drink milk and when I don't work out and when I don't drive and when.....

Sometimes I feel there isn't any experience he hasn't had. He had once let the bhang consume him on Holi, which left him clapping his hands for the rest of the day. He once watched four movies at the theatres in a single day. He also has the rare experience of watching the solar eclipse with a naked eye (despite my granny watching over him). He was seven then. He damaged his eye forever but so what! He had the courage to see the Sun at its weakest. Today, a software expert with the Canara Bank, he is a man of words who also keep grab of values so that they stay in the family and we grow with them.

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My Ma, on the contrary, has been an obedient daughter and and obedience-seeking mother. She is one of those ideal Indian women who live for their family putting their own hearts on a silent mode. She is cheerful but a no-nonsense woman. Her round large red bindi and a smile on her face makes her the mother every Indian kid paints in his first sketch of his family. I made that sketch too and I always lived it thereafter. I have an extended family because my Ma's sister is married to my Papa's brother. They are the connoiseurs in my life. And their son is the light of our lives and the source of our smiles. Our four-year-old brother is a talking teddy gifted to me and my sister by God.

Now let me take you to another constellation in my life where everyone is a star in the making.