Colors of life

My parents had a love marriage and initially lived separately from their family. The reason could be my mother's Punjabi origin, which made it difficult for the family to adjust. The family was a bit orthodox, but that doesn't mean they didn't want to accept the marriage. Since both of my parents were working and settled in a different town from our ancestral home, we gradually drifted away from our caste. We rarely attended social functions organized by our caste. Consequently, my parents often faced criticism from elder caste members, who warned that such an attitude would make it difficult to get their children married. My parents had a love marriage and in their initial days of married life they had separated out from their family. The reason could only be the Punjabi origin of my mother making difficult for most of the members of the family to adjust with. Of course, the family was a bit of orthodox, but it still does not suggest they didn’t want to accept the marri...

Very recently, my brother-in-law, after getting engaged, came to visit us for the first time along with his fiancée. He introduced his fiancée and after having a short formal chat; he took out his engagement album and handed it to my wife. The album was then circulated among all the family members and it finally came to me. While going through it, I found it a bit awkward since the photographs were arranged in such a manner that after viewing the left hand side photograph, to view the right hand side photograph, I had to rotate the album by 180 0 and, to my surprise, the fashion went on right up to the end. Somewhere in the middle, I very casually, asked my brother-in-law, ‘Who has arranged the album?’ Without having any idea about what could have bothered me, expressing his concern, predicting that I might have not found the photographs in correct order, he answered – the photographer himself. I called him to sit beside me and made him aware of the problem. Then, we rearranged a...