A Home Trip with a Difference

At the neighbourhood temple, Fulertal, Cachar, Assam, Apr 2023

Finally, here are the photos of our recent family trip to Assam, India.

This was a trip of many firsts. This was the first home trip that we went without Justin since he was born 13+ years ago. (He’s in Singapore studying). This was the first trip that did not have any side trips (save one silly excursion out of Kolkata that nearly ended up in disaster). This was a pure banking and family trip (although while planning, we had a whole bunch of side trips lined up that we wanna do). This was the first time that we did not get to use our little yellow car since we bought it 10 years ago (it friggin broke down, probably due to last year’s flood and a lack of maintenances, and we spent days trying to get it fixed). That partly accounts for why we didn’t make any side trips… (And it’s not even fully fixed when we left!) But this was not the first trip that we got food poisoning. This was the second in a row, actually. Maybe we’re no longer accustomed to the water in India. (I blame it on that blasted COVID. It made us too clean, ahem). So, to Anu, this felt like a wasted trip, because she couldn’t fully enjoy the ‘feasts’ that we used to have on home trips! Anyway, here comes the photos of the family in Assam and a few friends.


Anu with her sisters and mom… at our Silchar home. They’re only 4 sisters this year. The youngest sister, Amrita has moved to Canada with her hubby


Yours truly with Anu’s eldest brother Ramesh (sitting), second eldest brother Ganesh (right) and Ganesh’s brother-in-law, at Ganesh’s in-law’s home, Pailapool – Ganesh’s brother-in-law just became a brand-new father, but we forgot to take a photo of the new-born… or her mom


Cheers! Having a beer with Anu’s third eldest brother, Manoj at his home in Fulertal (Anu has 3 brothers and 4 sisters…)


Anu with her godbrother Rajendra’s family, in Fulertal. On the left is Savita and their kids are Deb (elder) and Ankit (younger). Ankit is Jayden’s age


Jayden loved it in Fulertal (except for the toilet, ahem). He made so many friends. There’re lots of kids his age. Plus this time, Jayden didn’t have Justin to play with. Here’s Jayden with his cousin Mahi (left) and a friend, Arohi


More friends! The kids from right are Mahi, Jayden, Prince (whom Jayden and Mahi kept calling Princess) and Ankit. The lady behind is Sudadi, Rajendra’s sister. Behind in the ‘auto’, you could see Deb and Kunal (Jayden’s cousin)


Here they are! The cousins 3, Kunal, Sonia and Raja. They’re trying to replicate their posts in a photo I took more than a decade ago (in 2008). Many of the cousins are no longer in Fulertal or Silchar. Rohan and Sweety are in Delhi now, and Aakash is in Punjab


The new cousins 3. The 3 youngest of the family, the Generation Alpha. Mahi and Jayden are the same age both born in 2014 (Mahi is 8 months older though), and Anshu was born in ummm… 2019 I think


More of Jayden’s friends, Fulertal – From right, Ankit, Jayden, Mahi, Sangvel and Prince


Some old friend of Anu’s at neighbour Mamuni’s house – Rinku and his family. Rinku grew up in this house but have settled down in Jorhat, another part of Assam. He was on a one day visit


Back to Silchar, we met an old aunt I’ve met more than a decade ago. She used to stay in Fulertal in the house opposite to Anu’s mom’s house. Anu called that house ‘the Clean House’ because the family staying there was obsessed with cleanliness


And they have a new grandchild (or is it great-grandchild, beats me – I only put this photo because that’s such a cute baby, haha)


Birthday party! For niece Sweety’s mother-in-law. Sweety got married a month before this, but has already left for Delhi to resume work. Her husband is Debanjan. He’s not seen here because he’s the one taking the picture, duh! From right, only the people I know, OK? … our nephew Zeeva, Debanjan’s cousin who’s a manager in the Tata Automobile’s Silchar showroom, Debanjan’s elder brother’s wife (yeah, that small girl there, she’s a grown-up, OK?), Sandi (Anu’s sister and Sweety’s mom), Jayden, an uncle of Debanjan, Anu, Debanjan’s eldest brother’s son (the little boy), Debanjan’s mother, Gopal (Sweety’s dad), a boy umm… I forgot whose kid this is, Manju (Anu’s eldest sis), yours truly, one of Debanjan’s relative who’s a British citizen (her family owns these flats), the lady’s daughter who’s also a British citizen, and finally, Debanjan’s elder brother… Whew!


Finally, dinner time. Gopal, Debanjan and yours truly, at Silchar, Assam, India, April 2023

That’s all for now folks! Ciao!