Prologue

I sincerely thank Robert Ford in realizing my shortcomings as a writer and I thank him for his wonderful support in editing the story.

The world today that we live in has made life seem fast and difficult to cope with under the pressure of pursuing our individual goals. We drifted apart from our near and dear ones, be it real brothers, sisters or cousins. Everybody is busy with their lives but still hang on to their childhood memories. I am from India where families used to be very close knit and we all used to gather during summer vacations at our Grand paa's Haveli (sort of small Palace). My Grand pa fathered 13 children and in all we are 52 cousins used to participate in the annual gathering but most avoid such gatherings as they had settled overseas, still we normally used to be a bunch of 15 kids aged 4 to 14 yrs. creating chaos in the Haveli and enjoying to the hilt.

Today the days are gone and only memories remain and yes we are in touch over the phone but that is also not frequent and it is been 30 yrs since we all have met at the same time. Today I am feeling low and going down memory lane because I am 50 years old recently separated from my wife. She took our only daughter with her, so I was going through the memories lane while sifting thru the family album. I closed my eyes and thought about the days of my childhood where I had a crush on couple of girls of the family including my younger sister and wish to God if those days could be lived again.

I was deep in thought when I got my Eureka moment and smiled for the first time since my daughter left me. I immediately picked up my cell phone and What'uped them all if they are interested in a family reunion. (at least we were in touch on what's up thanks to the app) the answers flowed in revealing that all were up to it but had reservations like where and when and observing that nobody had a bigger house like Grand Paa to accommodate all of us.

I smiled as I had other plans, I suggested that since all our kids are grown up so why not we go camping in the foothills of Himalayas and enjoy the rustic life without any technological assistance which we have come to depend on so much and it will also remind us of the days when these things never existed. Some grumbled but most took the bait and finally it was final with a condition that no kids or spouses would participate. The preparations begun, many calls made back and forth as who will arrange for what and who will contribute what.

It was September and winter was setting in, the biggest lure was to camp in snow, cook our own food, not living by the clock and live in the wild away from civilization on our own for one full complete week. Finally, the day came and we all gathered at the house of one of the cousins who stays in Delhi. We were all ecstatic and lots of hugs and kisses followed.

I frowned when I saw that one of my cousins had come with her teenage daughter and that my cousin's brother and brought both of his teenage daughters. There was a debate, but after it was agreed it was reasoned that they could come with us. Most of us were in the bracket of 38 to 65 years in age and the teens wanted to learn what kinship is all about so that once we were all dead and gone, they would not feel all alone and could have a similar experience with their siblings and cousins. It brought tears to all our eyes and we respected their wishes.

We shopped for things we would be needing in the wilderness for a week, then begin to pack in the wilderness for a week and once done we boarded in a mini bus to our destination.

Chapter 1 »