This one is for my nephew, who celebrated his 22nd birthday a few days ago...

Happy Birthday, Nannu!!

It was the first time that I had held anybody so small, so fresh, so wonderful, so lovely... I can close my eyes and be transported back  to the moment when I held you in my arms for the first time ever... a feeling so unique and so unforgettable... and never relived.  You were the first  of the new generation, the first of many new things life was to bring to all us... and each time every one of us looked at you, our hearts filled up with a love that was hitherto unknown to us.

As you grew older, taking your first faltering steps and then beginning to run at a pace that your grandmother could not keep up with, the air filled with your laughter and the house with joy. You have always been special ... because you were the first... the first to teach us how it feels to have a little bundle of joy in the house ... the first to make us aware of every small thing around us, that could affect you ... the first to fill our hearts with joy each time you smiled with a twinkle in your eye...

I have distinct memories of hugging you.. you felt so good in my arms... I miss that feeling.

I remember the look on my mother's face each time she watched you running around happily... I miss that look and I miss that happy child who would come running to hug me even before I could completely enter the house.

I remember you being the big brother, trying to get Nishu to sleep with a complicated bedtime story... you elaborate story-telling and her rapt attention.

I often wonder, how much of this do you remember? Someone once told me that memories are nothing more than stories  that have been repeated to you way too many times... the mind sees them and believes that they happened... if that is true, then you would have no recollection of any of these as they were never told to you... I wish I could change that.