Relatives have started calling up bitching about how we (my brother and I) have not visited or attended as many functions as they would like. It's times like these that make me want to call an F-you Press Conference addressed to all my relatives, because they are not concerned with if we are okay and so forth, but the fact that when my mum was here, we would appear in public functions as much as propriety demanded, even if we were blackmailed by mum into doing it. Little brother managed to get himself into aforementioned shitty situation right when a cousin was getting married. God forbid anyone should not be able to attend a wedding. Oh, and I make some friends wait outside the venue in the freezing cold for twenty minutes on our way to dinner so that I can pop in at the venue and make the expected "Salaam-rounds" and leave and they bitch about this as well. "Why did you leave so early?" Because your kids are annoying and I have nothing in common with them. "We could have given you a ride home!" Yeah at two a.m. when you were finally ready to leave? No, thank you. "Why didn't your brother come too?" He's not well. "Phir bhi...!"

Bah, I hate holidays. I was planning to have a little moviefest, ignoring as usual the fact that the streets are running with blood spilled gleefully by hands too young to hold a knife but proud to do so anyway. With the guilt trip laid onto aunt it looks like it's going to be another great holiday season involving us visiting relatives who don't give a shit about us and ignore us after the initial salaams just to meet the demands of propriety. Oh well, at least there will be lots of pepsi.