De ja vu....no, this has nothing to do with Paris!

The news hit me like a ton of bricks. I'd seen this happen before a couple of years ago. Back then I wasn't worried for I was constantly around him and could see my 'touches' in a lot of his pranks, arguments and the way he wound my sister up like a tightly strung guitar. It all brought back some strong memories. Memories of my mother's strong hand to be precise. It was all very amusing and even a little helpful, for I could bust him just when he wasn't expecting it and in ways he hadn't thought of, for I had the benefit of hindsight and knew exactly what I, as a budding teenager would have overlooked.

I also knew that the moment I moved out of Dubai, my influence on him would diminish to some extent and he would go on to become a good boy and all would be peachy. The call from my sister proved me wrong.

I moved out of Dubai a few days into 2008. So, I haven't been around the fellow for a quarter under 2 years. He's only met me at my engagement and wedding subsequently. The import of that call from my sister was that he has begun eating thayir sadam exactly the way I do, almost 2 years later! I was, understandably shaken, but not stirred. I was secretly thrilled that my lineage will continue, that my eccentricities will continue to live on. Until last night. Now I can be openly thrilled!

Allow me to explain. I've mentioned before, that I have always loved writing, but until I started this blog, I've never had the discipline to sit down and write. As a teenager, the only writing I could get done was called homework or something like that, and that too only got done with a gun pointed firmly in my direction. The moment the bally homework got done, I'd be out of the house before you could say, "Jack Rabbit". My ultimate fantasy those days was to have a secretary to dictate to, who would write in my handwriting, while I played cricket or tennis or football or whatever it is that I wanted to play.

Unlike me, thankfully, my nephew is not a lazy bum and he has decided to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard as the case may be) and has come with this thoroughly likeable and frankly honest account of his trip from Fremont to Seattle while visiting my other sister. I couldn't help but reproduce it below:

"One fine day, my grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin and I set off on a trip to Seattle on the evening of the 3oth of June. We drove for approximately 2 hours before we reached our first destination - Red Bluff, where we stayed in a well-known hotel named Best Western. It was very comfortable. We stayed for the night until next morning when we vacated after a good dose of cereal, bread and pancakes for breakfast. Barely half an hour passed when we entered into a long stretch of scenery on both sides. Saumya chitthi took control of the car and we were heading along to the day's planned destination - Mount  Shasta followed by a visit to the famous Crater Lake.

On the way we spotted a Chinese restaurant in which we had an enormous lunch where I mainly stuffed myself with large amounts of  Tofu, a Chinese souvenir to show the expertise of American chefs on Chinese cuisine: they had made it so well. We resumed our journey (Chitthi still at the wheel) afresh with food, toward the beautiful snow-capped Mt. Shasta (formed due to volcanic activity). It was quite a long journey but we made it pretty fast and had lots of time to gaze at its scenic beauty with eyes glued to the pair of binoculars I had brought along with me.

While climbing up we almost went hurtling down the cliff if it had not been Chitthi's sharp eyes and a big boulder at the end of the road! We laughed heartily at the near escape and my granddad and I started piling up more rocks along the edge of the cliff. We paused for a few minutes to take in the fresh air and stunning view of the mountain from that area. We took a few pictures, imaginarily pushing the boulder which we owed our lives to. We were quite low in gas and made to enter a gas station as soon as we descended from the mountain into a small village at the base of the mountain. After refuelling the car we resumed the journey toward Crater Lake which is one of the deepest freshwater lakes in the world with a depth of about 2000 feet below sea level. Upon reaching there we witnessed the natural beauty of the lake and soon found out, that its diameter was 5 miles across and was created by the action of volcanoes not unlike the formation of Mt. Shasta. When we looked down into the lake from the magnificent vista-point provided, it looked like still water but it was actually a trick played on the eyes. After many pictures (Keena included in most of them) we tore our eyes away from it and continued the journey downwards.

I dosed off while Chitthi drove through an unnaturally silent and lonely road for 3 hours without any sight of other cars and reached the yet another cosy Best Western in a village called Rice Hill. All the pictures we took had been uploaded on the laptop by Sri Chittappa who had brought it along with him. Keerthana who had had a tremendous time (with the exception of a lot of visits to the toilets in different places!) and was jumping around on the bed apparently thrilled with the sight of the mountain and the lake. I too was enthralled by the visit to these two famous landmarks and was eager to visit more of the planned sites. So next day as per schedule we started off in the morning toward the big city of Portland where we saw a very large port with many ships and boats dotting the bay. The view was outstanding from atop one of the bridges that we used to cross the port and we could see miles and miles of water surrounding us on our sides. We crossed the bridge and entered the main city of Portland where we entered a store named FRYS ELECTRONICS where we searched for a suitable laptop for my grandparents since there was no policy of tax in the state of Oregon in which Portland is situated quite unlike the regulations of San Francisco. It was the 4th of July, widely celebrated as the American Independence day."

I've not edited anything other than breaking it into a few paragraphs. At his age, I know I suffered from a horrible case of bad spellingitis and it warms the heart to see a clean essay from a hyper active photocopy of myself. Keep it up Sid! I'm proud of you and keep eating thayir sadam the way you are now!

P.S.: I can't help but notice the emphasis on food in his essay. Yet another trait of mine?