Family reunion : A different kind

    People must be thinking why such a topic. To answer your question, this reunion was unique and for a cause. This story is inspired by the reunion of, one of the families in my village on a special occasion.

(Note: I have tried my best to narrate the situation, avoided the use of any name and number, as this is a public post.)

Story Begins:

    The family was headed by an old man, farmer by profession. He has 5 sons and 3 daughters. After his wife passed away, it was really difficult for the old man to handle his family. As any other joint family, this family also went through family quarrels among his daughter-in-laws. So, he distributed his all property among his sons. But this was not the end to the quarrel in the family. Being a large family number of problems is also large. On the timeline, the misunderstanding among brothers and the respective families rose to such a level that they even stopped talking to each other.

    The old man was staying with one of his sons. God knows what happened, all of sudden I came to know about a new type of quarrel in the old man's family. The other sons, with whom the old man was not staying, called for a panchayat meeting to urge that they want to keep their father with them. As per the rumor in the village, his sons are thinking that the old man was doing some work in his son's house and they all want to take advantage of him. As per the panchayat decision, the old man started staying for 2 months in each son's house. In the meanwhile, there was some patches among few of the brother's as they understood that they are not going to get anything by keeping disregard with others.

Reunion Climax:

    One day one (the middle son) among the 5 sons of the old man died (due to health problem). As per the rights, the old man should have asked all his sons to handle the situation and give condolence to that family. As the old man know the nature of his sons' family, he decided not to call any one among his sons. Villager suggested the middle son's son to ask all his father's brothers and sisters to the funeral and later rituals. But unfortunately, the middle son's wife did not agree to this unconditional reunion. Anyway the middle son's son-in-law decided, invited and convinced all the brothers to join hand to complete the tasks in the ritual. All the sons of the old man called for a village panchayat and decided to join hands to finish the ritual. There was a sympathy, that played a major role and that was : "though there was not any such relationship among the brothers, still then the old man's middle son was there own blood, they are from the same parents". And the panchayat decided that they can stay connected if and only if all the family members start a new journey in life by forgetting what has happened till date or who has done what mistake. Finally all of them agreed and went to the funeral of the middle son.

     This was a timely requirement that all the sons fulfilled. After that I came to know that there was serious meetings in each family and among families to finalize the future road map. There was mere tension in our mind, whether they will really shake hands and go further as a family or not. But finally, on the 10th day I saw all the family members of each family at one place and performing the rituals.

    Though after this incident everybody went to there respective home, still then, the attachment  was established among the old man's sons. Now they talk to each other, care for others problem like relatives, the old man is still staying for 2 months at each son's house in turn. The bond is still weak and I hope everything  goes well and the bond among the families becomes strong.

    It seemed not less than a drama to me, but it was reality. I decided to narrate this, because in India such kind of incidents help the diversified families to attach emotionally with each other. Generally families unite in good situations, like family functions, religious functions, but this was really a different kind re-unite in that family.