My Extended Family

Treasuring those who are always there for us

- Kum. Pooja Shah

While the great Indian extended families are famous for being nosy, there is another side to them which I am realizing all the more now, as we do not meet so often and, not to mention, as I am inching close to half a century of life on planet earth.

Like most families in the olden days when job mobility was not common, my parents have stayed in the same home in the same city their entire married life. This has helped them be in close touch with their own extended families. We have many relatives and cousins in Mumbai. While growing up, I remember visiting my aunts, uncles and my maternal grandparents’ homes very often. Until I started college, we would also stay over with my grandparents for a few days.

I never knew that more than my cousins, it would be my aunts and uncles that I would form a strong bond with.