AT HOME with Nani

I never imagined I'd have an 85-yearold roommate well into adulthood. But living with my grandmother has been a lesson in patience, humility and matriarchal love

- Alisha Sawhney

The new year started off like most days in my home do: me trying to beat my nani to our shared washroom. She has remarkable timing when it comes to the toilet. Whether I'm tiptoeing in at 3 a.m. or taking a bathroom break before lunch, Nani, my maternal grandmother, is always in there. Sharing a washroom with an 85-year-old is a special kind of hell reserved only for stay-at-home granddaughters like me.

On that first morning of 2023, our race to the toilet was just the start of Nani's antics. As I was about to fall back asleep, a Facebook live stream from the local temple began blaring in my bedroom. Why was it getting louder? Why was Om Jai Jagdish Hare-a devotional hymn (and certified pooja bop when it's not blasting through a New Year's hangover)-edging deeper into my eardrums? What did I do in this timeline to the Supreme Lord Vishnu to deserve this?

I stormed into Nani's room and scanned her makeshift temple. The volume of the bhajan seesawed while my blood pressure steadily rose. She was sitting up in bed, staring blankly at her phone. No sound was coming out of it. And then it hit me: She'd accidentally connected her phone to my Bluetooth speaker. Ugh. I'd like to have a word with the Hindu god of technology.

For as long as I can remember, my grandparents have lived under the same roof as me, my brother and my parents in Mississauga, Ont. Given that cohabiting with extended family is more prevalent among ethnic populations, I never questioned our multigenerational cohesion. It wasn't until my teenhood that I became familiar with the idea of the "nuclear family": parents and kids only. Aunts, uncles and cousins congregated in my family home every weekend for get-togethers and meals. Despite competing sound systems (every relative brings a distinct brand of commotion), I welcomed the bustle as a necessary irritation of a richer family life.