My Blog Post No. 1400! – May this bonding last forever! God Bless this love!

This is my blog post No. 1400! And as always when I reach the milestone of a century, that is 14 times so far, I look for any subject that is close to my heart and write about it. Fortunately, a family occasion of this month helped me in finalising my topic. 

In November, my family, with the families of my siblings that is the families of my brother and sister and  families  or our spouses siblings, and the families of our children that is of my sons, my nieces and my nephews and my grandchildren, grandnieces and grandnephews meet for a daylong get-together at a farmhouse or resort. My siblings and our families as mentioned above have been getting together as often as possible since decades even as our families grew. The get-together occasions being festivals, birthdays, anniversaries, pilgrimages, casual parties, courtesy visits, Christmas, New year eve parties, picnics, weddings and childbirths within our families and our large community in our City. Apart from this lovely relationship within our family circle, I and my siblings also maintain a very good relationship with our cousins. This blog post is in celebration of this strong bonding in our family, which is now present in our third generation too, who happily look forward to such visits, meetings and celebrations. “Touch wood”! I wish and pray that this affection and camaraderie would continue forever. God bless.

All this has been possible since almost all family members are in the same city. And of course with the support of everyone. For any celebration of such a large gathering, children studying in different cities managed to come home to attend these functions and elders postponed their official or personal tours to participate in the celebrations.    

Followers of my blog would know of our family bonding through some of my earlier articles. The November-celebration I mentioned at the beginning of this article is our traditional picnic – called Vanabhojanalu which we hold in this Telugu month of Karthika Masam as often as possible and also to celebrate in a small way the Nine Birthdays of our family that fall in this month of November.  

In general, parents everywhere and their children bond very well universally. Parents love their children and take great care of them. And it should be so. And the siblings love and take care of one another and they become great friends. In this scenario family, members learn how to listen and work together. Children learn how to behave in society by watching their parents interact with each other and with the world. Family bonding times are a great way to model expected behaviours inside the family circle and with others in the community. But unfortunately in most families these days the parents of parents, that is the grandparents do not become a part of this family bonding. And these loving siblings as they grow up and have their own families do not love or care for their siblings as before or the love is totally absent. Everybody is becoming busy and selfish to such an extent that they no longer have time for their siblings and even their parents. Some of them even consider their parents a burden. They shift away into different houses, and for their careers to distant places, and meet their parents and siblings on some special occasions and at long intervals. It is all a helpless situation, there is no use blaming anyone, except for the changing situations and thinking in modern times.

Partying and celebrations with friends and colleagues are wonderful, but those with blood relatives surpass everything. Lucky are those who can create and enjoy such memories within the family circle.