An aunt or uncle you like very much ......write in Indian English within 300 words
Answers
An institution that is in grave danger of withering away is the Uncle-Niece/Nephew relationship. A unique tie, it is a cross between your relationship with parents and that with siblings. An Uncle, especially an unmarried one, doles out the affection of a parent, while still indulging in the fun and adventure of a sibling. From his angle, he gets to love and enjoy the kids minus the heavy-duty responsibility of turning them into good human beings.
He shares with you the fun and frolic, but never the sense of rivalry or competition of a sibling. He gets hero-worshipped by just being himself. Let’s say, a good, single uncle is like an amiable, indulgent elder brother without the kinks and mood-swings of the latter. Any of you who are uncles or nephews/nieces, will understand what I am talking about. Though scarily, soon many younger readers may not!
As families get smaller and more independent, and single kids become quite the norm, uncles and aunts are in danger of becoming extinct. Consider China, where the single child rule has been reversed after 40 years, though not before it skewed demographics and relationships. Generations have grown up without close family ties of siblings, uncles and aunts.
What a loss not to have known an indulgent uncle who tossed you in the air, taught you to ride a bike or fly a kite, perhaps helped you choose your career, supported you during those growing years, and shared family worries!
Strangely literature and folktales have done a disservice to this unique relationship by mostly recording “wicked uncles” – from Claudius in Hamlet to Ebenezer in Kidnapped to Shakuni mama in Mahabharata and so on.
I was lucky to have several uncles. While one uncle dedicated his printing press to my name and taught me to ride a scooter, another flew kites and made amateur kaleidoscopes with me; yet another created an imaginary character and made up a story a day for me. And then there was the one most dear. He always treated me as an equal, even when I was a little kid and he was training as an IAS officer at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy. “Dearest Winnie…” His letters from Mussoorie would begin, ending with “Yours affectionately, Shyam Uncle.”
Over the years his attention and affection never wavered, not even when he was bonkers over his own kids. When like any girl on the verge of matrimony, I got nervous, he promised to bail me out even at the last minute if I decided against the marriage. At the birth of my children he was outside the OT supporting my parents and husband. When my Dad was unwell, Uncle was next to me. In short, I cannot remember a time when I needed him and he wasn’t there firm as a rock!
Back as a child I remember going to Jaipur with him and his newly wed wife. With a five-rupee note clutched in my hand I went from shop to shop. Nothing I liked seemed to fit my budget until I entered a shop, where anything I laid my finger on was magically for five rupees. Happily I grabbed my gift, parted with the money and walked out a contented girl. It was only years later that I realized my Unclehad nipped into the shop ahead of me and instructed the shopkeeper to give me anything I wanted at five rupees, and he would later make up the deficit.
Who else but an indulgent uncle would have thought of that? And now Shyam Uncle is no more… He of the glorious smile and the glinting, kind eyes. And yet, he will remain forever alive, the quintessential cool Uncle.