AUNTIE | Wednesday, September 30, 2020

11:03 PM

#AUNTIE: all my late dad’s sisters adored my dad and treated me like a jewel, they showered me with love and affection and kindness. I don’t have favourites, but I knew Babyfoi the best from spending so much time with her. She had a pretty hard life, and my dad and myself were always trying to help and keep a lookout for her. Her late husband, my uncle, was one of dad’s best friends and he gave me my name: Vishal. It means ‘great’ or ‘wide’ or ‘unstoppable’ and I can only lay a clear claim to the last and am unlikely to ever make the second in my lifetime, and aspire to the first posthumously. My awesome Babyfoi passed away yesterday and my family shrinks again. My dad had a massive family, he was one of eleven, and it was truly amazing, in hindsight, to visit and be surrounded by family. I have never, ever, witnessed my entire family of uncles, aunts and cousins all in the same place at the same time, and never will. There’s only 3/11 left. I took this picture in 2001 in the family home in #Pondicherry. The house was gifted to the ashram by my philanthropist grandfather on the proviso that his family would live there. It’s been empty for some time, and will surely revert to the ashram. I hope they make great use of it and restore the life it must have seen back in the 1950s. #family #aunties #india