Newerways

      The talk of Time Machine and Theory of Relativity is for the likes of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. As far as I am concerned I only look back in my photographic albums to travel back rather than forwards. As I conveyed my anniversary greetings to my cousin today I reflected back nearly two decades ago. My children got very excited to travel by train for her wedding. The moment they boarded the train and reached the compartment just near the door all hell broke loose. They discovered that the compartment just had three berths and even a sliding door so it turned out that they had a room to themselves with bunk beds and to top it all the room was chilled. The baby boys imitated the monkeys as they sprang from berth to berth, laughing and playing all games. Soon the journey was over and the sultry weather in Delhi drained them. The return journey by Shatabdi was equally memorable for them. The meals on wheels was just beyond their baby minds. The juices, tea and breakfast

My call was very gladly received by my sister who was in the midst of a monotonous job of setting a question paper for her students. She needed a distraction which I willingly obliged. These days we happen to be enjoying our telephonic conversations a lot more than usual. The reason being we dwell upon the stories from the past that have been handed down to us from our ancestors. They are not stories of valor being passed down the generations in musical forms to infuse courage. They seem like tall stories stretched by imagination, not only to us but also to an innocent bystander. These have become so believable to us by virtue of being repeated so many times during our family reunions. The stomach churning laughter they induce keeps those anecdotes so lively till today. Tippan chacha, was a guest who came from far away to take a departmental examination for promotion in the city where my grandparents lived. Our grandparents were too glad to have him visit them. As for one of their bro