Rendezvous With My American Sister

I have this cousin who's nineteen years old and I'd never met her until Friday. She and her two brothers are half Indian and half American by lineage. But they've been born in brought up entirely in the States. This is her first visit to India. She's my first cousin whom I'd seen only in pictures, communicated with only via email, and spoken to on the phone only once in all these years. In effect, I didn't really know her all this while.

The first meeting was really pleasant. Better than I'd thought. Kiran is this really happy person. Always laughing or smiling. Showing excitement at the slightest incentive to do so. Not once did she crib about the weather, the traffic conditions, the beggars, anything that I'd expect someone with her upbringing to crib about. Incidentally, I think the weather in Delhi has been relatively well behaved this summer but Thursday was really hot and humid. And she landed in Delhi that evening.

We looked around a bit at the Cottage Industries Emporium and Janpath before a completely Indian lunch at CP. She seemed to relish all of it. My mamaji tells me she's been brought up on daal roti. Probably worth mentioning here that my mamiji is an American and my mamaji is the one who cooks the daal roti at their place. We took them to see the Akshardham Temple. None of us had seen it ourselves, living in Delhi all this while. And me, passing it on my way to work every day for the last two years and two months. It's a masterpiece. An awesome work of art. And the way Kiran showed her awe for every part of it was simply fantastic. I wish I was a little more like her. I wish I was a little better at appreciating the little things and the big things in life.

So anyway, Kiran and her friend left for Dharamshala early on Saturday morning where they will be spending almost a month in an ashram working with special needs children. I hear she's done that kind of thing earlier as well, back home. She'll be back at the end of next month to spend five days with us in Delhi. I'm really looking forward to that. Those five days are all weekdays and I want to take all five days off work. But I know that neither my manager nor my workload will permit me to do so. But I'll spend as much time with her as I can. And we'll have a good time.