Tuesday, April 26, 2016

V is for vacation

So Viv has finished his work at Las Vegas, done his darshan at the casinos and has apparently won $15 (I asked him to stop right after; I'm not sure what happened though), and is now on vacation.

With his dad.

Gosh, this has to be the most silent vacation ever.

Viv and my dad-in-law are the quietest people I know. Viv has started to talk more over the years (possibly under 18 years of my influence), but I'm not kidding when I say that my dad-in-law could get by an entire day on just 10 words.

We have been meaning to take his dad on a US holiday for a long time. Everyone on both sides of our family had holidayed in the US, but for some reason, my dad-in-law had never been there. We decided that this would be a great time to take him on a US holiday, because Viv would already be there, and sis-in-law and mom-in-law are also going on vacation soon. No, we did not consider the idea of everyone going on the same holiday; sounds a bit crazy, but we might do it some day!

Though I'm very curious to know how this holiday pans out, I do hope that they get a chance to have some father-son bonding time. My dad-in-law was initially quite reluctant to go on the trip only with Viv, because personally he prefers my company to his son's. Ok, I'm kidding. No, I'm not. The truth is that he would prefer Xena's company over anyone else's, but it was simply not possible for all of us to go on a US holiday at this point.

So last week, my dad-in-law flew into Singapore for a day and boarded the flight to LA the next morning. Viv and I were discussing what a pity it was that he had to travel for almost an entire day without any company. And then we both burst out laughing. Because we knew it wouldn't be much different even if Viv had been sitting right next to him. Of course, we made sure to put him on Singapore Airlines so that he would have enough entertainment for 20 hours.

In November 2013, Viv, his dad, Xena and I had taken a 16-day Aussie road trip together and it was a total blast, with the highlight being us surprising his 'unsurprisable' dad with tickets to the Ashes. I still remember our drive on the Pacific Highway and how after Xena fell asleep, there was complete silence in the car. Somehow to keep the atmosphere lively and Viv awake, I made my dad-in-law talk continuously for half an hour, which was a miracle in itself. He gave us a detailed account of the story of Balika Vadhu, which my in-laws used to religiously follow at that point in time. To my utter surprise, Viv not only followed the plot, but was asking questions long after I had switched off.

The latest WhatsApp reports from Viv tell me that the road trip has commenced and that father and son are enjoying themselves. The two chatterboxes -- Xena and I -- may not be on this trip, but I do hope that father and son have enough to talk about.



2 comments:

Mandy said...

Because Viv is so quiet, I bet he has some interesting stories to tell!

I also think it's amusing that you sent Viv to America where everyone is friendly and talks to everyone. I don't know how long he spent in the US alone, but that had to be intimidating for him!

Sayesha said...

Mandy,
LOL. He goes there every year, so by now he's probably used to people around him talking a lot. Still doesn't get him talking much though! :P