Hope is a Dream that Never Sleeps

I often hear friends, complete strangers, characters in movies complain about their families. Vacation times are ordeals to be survived. Family reunions are painful.

I’ve never felt this way, and this trip - more than any other - has made me realize how completely blessed I am. I love everyone in my family. They’re such beautiful people, inside and out: friendly, kind, caring, and extremely intelligent. And yet they don’t boast about themselves - instead they boast about everybody else.

I don’t know how many times I heard, “Both Aditi and Tejashri are so brilliant” (Aditi and I always made faces at that) and “Aditi does this, this, and this” “Tejashri does that, that, and that.”

And my cousin, the one who got married, said that my dad was his inspiration: “Whenever anybody asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would always say, ‘An engineer like Raju Mama.’” I was touched - I can only imagine how touched my dad must have been.

I’m incredibly lucky just to know these people…and I’m related to them? I wonder what I ever did to deserve that ♥

(Judging by this, my sister feels the same way!)