The Normal Family

A Final Get Together

Narrator's POV

The family had planned a get together before some of them moved out. The whole family was present. Vijaya and Varadaraj had joined them. Arjun, Megha and their children came as well. A couple of Shiva's friends with whom they had lost touch paid a visit. Pankaja's sister came, she had not seen Adithya before and was excited to meet him. Unfortunately, her aunt had been staying with her that week and had joined her when she had mentioned visiting this family. "I will come with you." she said. "It has been a long time since I have seen Pankaja and her family. I saw them lastly at Sriram's marriage right?" "Well, actually that was a month ago, Aunty." she said. "Was it? it seems like it had been ages." the aunty replied.

Everybody looked disappointed that this old lady had to come and ruin their get together. They tried not to pay much attention to her. Srihari's friends came as well. Abhinay was one of the first to arrive. "Do you all know? I have passed in all subjects." he said. He had come with a box of chocolates. He went to Akhila and said, "Aunty take this chocolate. I have got good results in the board exams." "Oh, good which subject did you top in?" she asked him. "Top? I didn't top any subjects aunty, what made you think that. I passed in all subjects. I got 36 in Maths, 40 in English, 50 in Chemistry! 30 in Physics" "Isn't that fail?" Akhila asked. "No, I thought 30 was the pass mark." he said. "No, it is not, have you told your parents about this yet?" she asked him. "No, aunty now I have to go hide this chocolates before somebody else sees them." he said running away. Akhila thought to herself, 'How come these kids over react this much for passing. Srihari had got admission it NIT and is so modest about it.'

Srihari had invited Shivansh's son Karan for the get together. "Did you invite him?" Akhila asked Srihari discreetly. "Yeah mom, I heard he had joined a boarding school in Ooty and they were taken on a study trip to Chennai this weekend. I thought it would be a good idea to meet him. We have become quite friendly that evening as there was no Wi-Fi and nobody to talk to. I am sorry I didn't tell you this earlier I thought it won't matter." he replied. "Of course it doesn't matter." Akhila told Srihari, as she left to get something from inside. Many of Srihari's friends had come, there was the usual gang, Shweta, Satish, Tanisha and Bushan. Pallavi too had joined them. She was leaving for Bangalore the coming week. The most surprising member was Selvam.

 Sreeja had invited Subbu. Subbu tried to stay away from Srihari and his gang. After Sreeja persuaded him saying he needn't be scared and it was a happy occasion he finally agreed to come and join them in table. "You have to salute at me and Srihari, if you want to sit here." Abhinay said. "Hey, don't talk to me like that, I would even salute at Srihari but not you. Because I passed tenth grade while you failed twelfth." Subbu replied. Everyone was shocked by Subbu's retort. They allowed him to sit with them. Abhinay still sat there shamelessly.

Shiva was talking to Mani, his old friend who Akhila kicked out of the house years ago because he had bought alcohol with him when Srihari was young. He was shocked when Akhila was talking to him as if she had forgotten that incident. Shiva had sneaked in a bottle of champagne, he wanted to drink for the memories he had spent in this house. He got two glasses and gave one to Mani. Suddenly he saw somebody behind. It was Abhinay. "Can I have a glass." he asked. "No, its only for the two of us." Shiva replied not wanting to waste his precious drink on Abhinay. Abhinay tried making a deal. Akhila hearing the commotion came to the balcony. "Why have you bought Alcohol inside the house?" she asked looking at Mani. "We have to drink for the sake of the memories we have spent in this house. Can't we make an exception this once?" Shiva asked. "No, she said grabbing the bottle and threw it outside the window. All Shiva heard was a 'clash'. "It would have made some sense if Srihari had done something like this, but you in this age can't follow rules." Akhila scolded and left the two men who ended up filling their glasses with lemonade instead.