One Cuppa Chai

°14°

I suppose I hadn't expected to wake up to three faces looming over me. I squinted my eyes open and someone or something whacked my nose not-so-nicely. That alerted me and I sat up before I was almost pushed back by a weight on my face.

Shrishti pulled my nose and attempted to climb on my head, making gurgling noises and I tried to disentangle her fingers from my hair without letting my irritation show on my face.

Now, where are my manners?

"Hello pinni.When did you come?"
She didn't even attempt to pull her child away from my head and smiled.

"Today morning, Charminar express. Your father picked us up from there."

My uncle had nothing to say except a small nod with a hint of a smile.

I liked him already.

"Shree was missing you a lot. So much she used to talk about you." She spoke, which was the code sentence for: You're going to be this kid's nanny until I stay here.

"I can see that," I mumbled when she turned away.

"Your other relatives, are they coming from Amrika or no?" She enquired.

"I don't know exactly," I replied honestly, pulling the sheets off from my body.
My mother debuted with some cups of chai for the guests. She must've just come home because her hair was in a disarray and her churdidar was wrinkled.

She gave me a look. "You slept in today! Go, take a bath and come. Fast. You have some work."

So I rerouted back to the room to grab my turkey towel and go past the living room.

"HELLO! HELLO! WHO IS THIS NOW?" My uncle number 2 greeted; or rather bellowed at me in his booming voice that almost made me jump in my place. That's when I noticed two more smiling faces perched on my sofa with little ceramic teacups clutched in their hands.

"N... Namaste." I greeted on autopilot.

He stood up from the sofa and came forward to envelop me in a welcome hug as if I came back alive from a successful two-day hunt in the Amazon forest.

I almost choked.

"How are you?" I managed when he released me.

He laughed in that booming voice that echoed off the walls and I just stood there. "HOW CAN I NOT BE FINE? NOW THAT I SAW ALL OF YOU, EH?"

I tried to smile. I really did.

"COME, COME SIT DOWN. TELL ME? WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? LONG TIME SINCE I SAW YOU!"

His wife I suppose interrupted to agree with him.

"You were this much!" She said, gesturing her palm downwards to the height of her knee, "...When I last saw you. You used to write little storybooks for me. Remember me?"

Of course, I didn't!

"Er..."

"OF COURSE SHE DOES!" The uncle next to me laughed. Remembering him could not be hard. He had such a...Remarkable personality. I'm sure I was attacked by that thunderous voice several times in my childhood.

My mother was back with the tea tray. "One moment. She has some work now. She'll come home in some time." And she gave me a freezing glare.

I immediately retreated to the restroom for a quick shower. I almost forgot that my sister's marriage required a hoard of relatives to migrate here.
And of course, my mother's relatives from the States must be already complaining how sweaty it is, sitting in some gaudy five-star resort.