Mundane Musings

 I can't start 2021 without paying obeisance to my father in law, who passed away on December 28th 2020 due to kidney failure. He passed away at a ripe old age of 90, almost 91. I knew him only in his twilight years, as I married S only when Uncle was 81. He was a distinguished man with his precise words and genial attitude which acted like a magnet to the people around him.  I remember him narrating interesting stories about their family during the 1900s and about the city with its myriad transformations. What made chatting with him so enduring is his remarkable memory and his choice of words. One could get a picture of the city or of his life at that time without the poetic exuberance. Every word spoken was measured yet descriptive.  When my own father passed away in 2008 rather unexpectedly, my grief was limited to myself with no knowledge of what was happening to my once alive father. My brothers and other male relatives conducted the last rites as per our customs and I just go