When I was leaving India for the US in June, my sister and Baby George came home to see me off (Christy was in school).... and while they were leaving I hugged Baby George and cried ... Baby George was confused ... he looked at me, touched the tears rolling down and asked "Crying?"..... and that got a smile out of me... and my sister comforted me saying that you are gone only for 6 months and we will be here when you get back... and later in the night while waiting to catch the flight, my sister send me a message "bye. We will miss you."...

Anyways my sister and her family are making plans to leave India in October.... a turn of events I had not expected, especially when I am away from the country....so this is a letter of thanks to my sister and her two sons...

thankyou Chech for enriching my life for 5 years in Mumbai... I got to see Mumbai more because of you than anyone else.... be it the visit to Sanjay Gandhi national park, the Gateway of India, Taj, countless restaurants in Mumbai, the juhu beach... I loved eveyr cackle that came out of Christy and Baby George while buying balloons in Juhu, eating falooda at the stalls, driving on the Sea Link and touching the sea at Band Stand.....

thankyou for giving me the opportunity to see Baby George grow up... for me it was a life altering change... I never knew I could handle a new born and let alone be patient with it... but Baby George and I became fast friends and I will cherish the 3 odd years I watched him grow up... I am not sure whether he will remember those years but then I have the videos to show him....

thankyou for feeding me countless number of times... and giving me open access to your house whenever I wanted to stay over.... for enjoying my nutty attempts to fly the kite for Christy's benefit... for giving me Kachiya Moru everytime I came over... so much so that it provoked Christy to say "You eat so much in our house and you dont even say thankyou to my mother"... ofcourse I chased him around... but I am saying thankyou now for all of that....

Thankyou for the 5 years of incredible fun....Mumbai and I will miss you....

And as I wrote this a drop of water fell down on my fingers.... Yes, Baby George, I am crying...