Almost Grandchildren

Vikram Singh Bhandari has been our Man Friday for nearly 12 years now. He knows more about our house than we do and he runs it with a professional's skill. He reminds us about which bills are due when, scolds us for leaving lights on when we don't need them, teaches our foreign guests how to make chapatties and makes sure we never run out of anything. He is a brilliant cook (he makes tacos, eggplant parmesan, bread and baba ganoush like a pro), an astute observer of human nature and especially gifted with the elderly. He says his dream is to one day open a vridh ashram (a home for old people).

But right now, it's the young people he's brought into our lives I'm thinking about. Vikram and his wife Sarita have two ridiculously cute children - Vijay and Lakshmi - who live in the flat upstairs and have completely stolen  our hearts. It's like having grandchildren. They scamper in and out of our days like little mice, giggling and wheeling through the living room and into the kitchen and back around again and we all sit at the table and just watch them for the sheer pleasure of the watching. They are so small and so full of life. They tumble onto the couch and off it onto the carpet, pushing each other and laughing and we feel our spirits rise for no reason we can name, just for the joy of being in the same room as them.

They make us glad to be alive, glad to be sharing the earth with them, glad for the privilege of being part of their growing and learning and pure being.

Everything that lives is holy: life delights in life. William Blake