My Nephew !!

During my vacation in US, I made approximately 7914 memories with different people, different places and different foods. I also got to meet my cousin after fifteen years – theater artist, a bundle of energy and a single mother to an adorable eleven year old boy! I met my nephew for the first time – he hasn’t been able to come to India because of some constraints and has been thirsty to meet his relatives. Unfortunately, only a few of us have been able to visit this fine little adult.

My sister is an established favorite aunt of his and I had some really big standards to live up to. Before greeting him, I collected ammunition in the form of gift coupons, a hand-picked fiancé and a loony smile 😀 And was he a charmer! We took to each other within minutes. He was the adult of the family, telling us to settle down and make ourselves at home while he took our coats like a true gentleman. He was in a rush to share and show so many things that he kept mixing them up – like a child during Christmas who cannot decide which gift to open first.

He took me through his room, his sketches, his birthday scrapbook and spoke about his latest crush at school. His piece of wisdom – “I will soon be in middle school – the ideal time to start having infatuations”

Okay then…

I shared some tips with him as we prepared a salad. He had the bright idea to add blue food coloring to our bowls insisting that I eat it up so that we can have matching blue tongues. I happily obliged seeing that this was sure to get me the favorite aunt spot! I spotted his jar of chocolate milk mix and informed him of our mutual love for having it for breakfast and that I missed having it during the holiday.

We finished our lunch and talked about a dozen different things. All this time my nephew was tinkering in the kitchen yelling his prized insights for our vanilla talks. And hey presto! I was presented with a mug of cold chocolate milk – exactly the way I like it. He shyly offered, “I hope you like it – keep the jar since you miss it so much”. I was dumbfounded! I had absolutely no words to properly react to the sweetest gesture anyone has ever done for me. I just muttered a teary thank you and hugged him as tightly as I could without breaking his bones. It was the best mug of chocolate milk I have ever had.

My cousin was shocked as well – apparently he has never done anything like this for anyone! I was officially declared his favorite aunt after this incident.

I did gloat on getting that coveted position, but I had my own declaration to make. He was my favorite-est young adult of all time. He unintentionally taught me about selfless gestures that I had mostly read about in books but never really understood. A big thank you to him!