This week I was at my sister's place. She lives in a different city and it is a 6 hours train journey from Mumbai. Since it was our New Year as per our culture, it was decided that we will all spend it together. I always enjoy travelling to this city Ahmedabad. I have spent a good amount of my childhood days in this city with my Granny and cousins who also lived here, and have very fond memories of this place. It was a 5-day visit. We left on Monday morning and returned back last evening.

Whenever I return from Ahmedabad, I come back with my bags full with all the goodies gifted by my sister and other cousins. These reunion times are something that I look forward to, because it's just not about me, it's also the bonding time for the generation down the line, our children. We like that they also bond just the way we did and care for each other the way we do and luckily, they do. Understanding the importance of these family units is very important for today's generation so that they can also pass it down the same way to their children.

The day 1 we reached I was home only spending time with my sister and mom. We met after a long time so there were loads to catch up on. We do talk on phone regularly but in-person is always different and even though you may talk about the same things it feels like the first time.

Day 2 I went to meet some of my other cousins and then evening we had a full family gathering with all the cousins. We had selected a venue called Barbeque Nation. It is one of the famous chain of restaurants in India. The food served here is mix of grill and curries and our children love it. We always make fun of them that when they sit to eat nothing is left for anyone to eat, because they finish it all.

Me with my sister and other cousins.

We had reserved the full area since we were 16 of us. We cousins settled on one table, the older guys on one and the children on one.

The food just kept getting served until we were all stuffed and about to explode....hehe.

The ambiance of this place is also decent. Honestly, I do not enjoy these types of meals, when it is too much food, I feel stuffed even before I eat, just looking at it. But since our children love it, we selected this venue. They really did good justice to the food.

After the meals the staff got us a cake since the next day was New Year.
Youngest member of our family did the cake cutting ceremony :-)

After all of this we headed to our community center, where there was a dance party. This was again fun for all of us, we all danced and welcomed our New year.

At midnight there was another cake cutting ceremony here.

On the day of the New Year, we did some of our traditions, where normally the older people of the family do a good luck to the younger guys. In our family we all do it for each other. It is considered a way of blessing.

My sister doing it for me

After all the ceremonies we visited the Fire-Temple and evening was a community dinner gathering where everyone was dressed at their best and we had a gala time.
The last day I was again home almost through the day. I wanted to spend more time at home with them, because outside we are going all the time.

5 days just flew off and the trip that I was planning for 2 months came to an end in a blink.
Today is a rest day at home again with few things to do and again tomorrow I will set out to my new home construction site and will stay there for 3 days. In the next 10 days I have 3 short trips coming up. Gearing up for that.

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