20th May 2013 to 25th May 2013

It is nice to have children around in the house. Muskan announces their arrival with loud ‘Vanur Sena’ has come warning. I prepare myself for what I call, a new real time episode of Akshay-Chinky serial. I gently push Akshay-Chinky to fight for control of TV Remote.  Akshay will use his strong voice to subdue Chinky with no effect, then he will say, ‘Only one ‘Gabbar’ allowed in this home, and that ‘Gabber’ is Akshay.’ Chinky will continue her pleading, request and aggressive stance for control of Remote. When we all get tired of their fight, I enter the argument and allow the Chinky to take control of remote. I know, Akshay hardly watches the TV. Chinky will get busy switching from one channel to other.

Does TV show’s preferences in family mean something?

We all watch together, one show regularly, ‘Tarak Mehta ka Ulta chashma’, film based shows like Award Nights, special episodes currently running ‘Bollywood@100’ are also liked by most of us.

Rinky-Bindiya-Muskan-Mummy all earnestly see all episodes of ‘Master Chef’. Chinky’s favorite is ‘Devon Ka Dev, Mahadev.’  And finally I am told Akshay-Muskan enjoy at 10.30 ‘Bade Ache Lagte Hain.’  Dhwani and Bindiya like to see crime shows like ‘Adalat’ and ‘Sawadan India’. And Kashyap likes to see English movies, History Channel. In between whenever I get opportunity, I switch to News Channels. All in all we see whole range of shows.

But why in our family no one is crazy about IPL, or reality shows like Big Boss, Khatro Ke Khiladi, Kaun Babega Crorepati, Nach Baleye etc?

This vacation, kids are taking full advantage of Swimming pool.

Friday: Kash-Dhawani left for Mumbai. MIM is growing satisfactorily. They have plans to have 5 meetings with prospects. Akshay is busy at ‘Sakal’ Exbhition.

Saturday I had after decades an opportunity to teach and play one card game which Lali-Rajni-Ashu and myself used to play for hours. This time I played with odd group. Muskan-Chinky-Rinky-Palak. In all three generations! 

And the sindhi name of the game is ‘Ghar Phir’. And the time placed a one more marker in chawla girls history. Dimpi, Shobha's daughter gave birth to duplicate Dimpi in London, who was promptly named 'Ananya'. The child's first picture and video clip was shown by Akshay on his mobile. It was received exactly after 39 minutes of her birth, wide eyed and splashing her hands around. Mummy remarked, earlier child will take 3/4 days just to open eyes, and few more days to get active and today they are active within 30 minutes! 

by P G Dodeja