Acha, Amachi, and I

Since I have Fridays off, I took off for New Jersey on Thursday night to spend time with my grandparents who are here for their annual visit with my mom.

Acha (my grand dad), Amma (my grand mom), Jason (my 14-year old cousin), and Kyle (my 12 year-old cousin) were delighted to see me, but this would never have been apparent to you by the nonchalant manner in which they greeted me. It would seem to you they had seen me everyday for the last 25 years, the manner of familiarity and unimportance assigned to my visit. It was both comforting and disconcerting--but isn't that the way families go?

I was glad to see Luckey. He had missed me, after all. He definitely showed a predisposition towards me as compared to the other brown people in the house.

My mom was exhausted. She's a bit neurotic about tidiness and in India my grandparents and cousins have maids to clean up after them, so they tend to take that lifestyle for granted. My mom had turned into their American maid, much to her chagrin. There wasn't tension in the air as much as relief that another pair of hands had come to ease the labor of two.