"An evening of laughs"

Hello!! Rucha, this is me Poonam, I am so excited and happy to tell you that i have come to your town, the last night. So when are you going to visit my place? when are we going to meet?.. should I send you the address ?

Oh! Oh! Oh! firstly you take a breath and wait for a moment, are you kidding me?

I asked.

She took a long breath and said no my dear, I am really here,in your town.

I am shocked,as how ? because from past 6 years you were in Calcutta, and how come all of a sudden in Nagpur ? Is it all ok? What's the matter? I enquired.

She said please don't worry, it's nothing like that. Today is my maternal grandpa's birthday and we all family members are here in Nagpur to celebrate and so I want you to join the celebration and double, my happiness.

Definitely!! I will come but why did not you tell me earlier about this ,I would have came to receive you all.

And also I don't understand how come you are celebrating his birthday in Nagpur, I mean grandpa was with you in Calcutta, right? 

She replied to me on that " I don't know whether you remember or not I had told you that my maternal uncle has got transferred to Nagpur 6 months ago .And for a change grandpa had came with Uncle and Aunt here in your city. And so we all are also here!! 

Poonam Laughed and said ,any more questions?? I said no.

Get yourself ready ,I have already send you the address of hotel and the timings for party while talking to you. Please be on time, I am eager to see you, she said excitedly!!

Lastly Poonam said, see you soon Rucha and ended up the call.

And so after getting a call from Poonam ,I was in seventh heaven as we were childhood friends .So without having a second thought, didn't even looked at the clock ,I got just ready ,took a cab and on the way to hotel I took bunch of yellow roses for grandpa which I thought,he would love .

So as i reached hotel ,no sooner I realized that I was much before "The be on time" stated by Poonam in call and message.

As i step into the entrance of hotel and was at the reception ,Poonam saw me there standing ,she came running and loudly said, here comes my dear friend "Rucha",and hugged me tightly .It was immense happiness for both of us . Why not? After all we were meeting after 6 years.

But at the same time I was little embarrassed , because I had arrived in afternoon itself for the Birthday party which was to be held in evening .But before I could say anything ,she said I am happy that you came early! Now I have time to introduce my sweet friend to all family members.

One by one she started introducing me to her relatives.I was familiar to Poonam's Mom ( Sandhna Aunty) ,dad (Keshav Uncle) and Brother (Rohit). So now it was time to meet others.She firstly introduced me to maternal Uncle family, who has now shifted to Nagpur, Sushil Uncle,his wife Anita Aunty and thier children Neeta ,Neeti and Vivek. 

Then to Her Sangita Aunt's family ,her husband Nitin uncle and their children Arav and Ruhi.

And lastly the Birthday boy "Grandpa" with whom I had a little conversation over video call, once. So I asked Grandpa whether he remembers me or not. He said with a great laughter that I would have probably forgotten ,but your Friend keeps telling me about you all the time so it's not possible to forget you ,Rucha. I gave him  the flowers and I came to from Sadhana aunty that yellow roses was his favourite. 

I felt nice after meeting him.Really Poonam's Grandpa was full of life and cheerful kind of person.

The afternoon passed and now was the time for birthday celebration .The hall was decorated with balloons, ribbons and flowers all over.

That evening everyone was happy and were enjoying. Some sang song ,some danced with grandpa, and I had arranged games for all.

After all fun and cutting the cake , Anita Aunty said " Poonam go and bring my bag"

i have found something very unique two days ago when I was cleaning the guest room.Adding on she said ,the unique thing was kept in a Cloth material bag , hidden in the corner of the loft.

The all family looked suprised and were eagerly waiting to know what it is. Poonam went to room and bought the bag which she handed over to Aunty. As soon the bag was opened there was something like a A4 size clear envelope where it was written "The letter in envelope will be opened after 10 years of today's date that is 12/02/2008 by any of family members". On hearing this Rohit said suddenly it's Mom and dad's Anniversary date . But nobody understood what does that mean?. What that date has to do with today's function? And most importantly ,Ruhi said, who has kept that bag so hidden on loft? 

Grandpa ,do you know anything about this? Neeta enquired. But he said No! No!.

After a while,I said silently, can I take a chance to guess what it can be? I feel I knew .

Oh! Surely Rucha, Grandpa said .It's a Time Capsule.I explained further that when it's explicitly written that the thing should be opened after a particular period of time and by a particular person .And its used when somebody wants to tell about something that had been taken place into past or want to pass on some information. Time capsule is a kind of communication.

Grandpa said," Good answer , Rucha" 

But I guess ,only Grandpa listened to my explanation while others were busy counting the years as to really has it been 10 years so that the envelope can be opened and the secret thats written can be revealed!!

Poonam said according to today's date ,it's more than 10 years, isn't it ? So everyone insisted Aunty to open. She said well ,who would like to open this envelope?

Arav, the youngest of all cousins took envelope and said it's high time now, and so he will open envelope and also shall read the letter! Which was stated as below,

To all my children ,

  I,Mohan lal writing this letter to tell you all about the bet that was between Sushil Sadhana, Nitin ,Keshav,Anita and Sangita on 12/02/2008 where after the wedding Anniversary celebration of Sadhana and Keshav , all were discussing over likes and dislikes, weights and heights of each other. Don't know why ? But when Sushil was asked, he said "My love for tea will never end". On that Keshav said that no ,likes and dislikes changes over period of time as the way our weights changes. Sangita said, true!! Likes changes over time.Nitin also agreed to Keshav .Anita and Sadhana said, we don't know about likes but definitely our weights will never change. Keshav said so it's bet , let's see whose statements comes out to be true!! after 10 years.

I who was sitting beside, heard all the discussion and made a chart as below:

Name.   Weight (kg)    Likes

Sushil       67           Tea

Anita.       60          Jewellery

Sangita      55          Pizza

Sandhna.   50          To go on trips

Keshav.      63          To play chess

Nitin         75          To prepare food

So that whenever , my children finds this envelope , would remember that bet of 10 years , looking at above chart and would compare their current weights and likes. So definitely would enjoy!! and feel how funny the bet was ,over weights and likes.

                    Your lovingly,

                      Dad

After the Arav finished reading the letter,all started starring at Grandpa .Ruhi said, Grandpa so it was you ? Who had hidden this letter. All of a sudden ,all started laughing and Joking about this .

Grandpa asked Neeta, to make a new chart of all and compare .

Vivek said it's ok about likes but how about the weights? Where is weighing machine. I said, don't worry ,I will bring it as my friend is Doctor and suprisingly his new clinic is just diagonal to this hotel. After all work done .

New chart was below as on date 16/01/2020

Name   Weights (kg)    Likes

Sushil.     53            Ice creams

Anita      72            To watch TV

Sangita   55             Pizza

Sadhana  65            To read novels

Keshav    63            To play chess

Nitin       70            To prepare food

So when all were asked to see the chart which was written 10 years ago by Grandpa. And chart as above with their today's weights and their likes.Apparently Keshav uncle,the one who said the likes changes, he had still the same choice and the Sushil Uncle who said my love ,my tea.Now likes Ice cream the most.

Anita aunty and Sadhana Aunty's weight were 10-15 kgs more of what they have stated would never change. And Sangita Aunty who also said that liked changes but even today she likes Pizza a lot!!

Oh my god, such a wonderful evening it was!! An evening of laughs and giggles.

I was so delighted to meet Poonam and her lovely family but the Grandpa's Time Capsule ,to know about that funny bet was just icing on the cake!!

And now,it was time to say goodbye! to all. Poonam and I got nervous as to why this party ended.But still, we holded that little light smile , remembering the funny bet which grandpa put into a Time Capsule.