Aban and Anahita visit, 5 - 7 February 2011

by Hootoksi Tyabji, Shah Alam, February 2011 

Rahul must have read and remembered Thomas Fuller’s quote when he picked Anahita to marry in October 2010, “If you would have a good wife, marry one who has been a good daughter.”

My cell phone rang one day with a young voice on the other end saying  "Aunty, do you remember me? This is Anahita from Mumbai" - of course I remembered!

Anahita is the 28-year-old delightful and generous daughter of Aban, who is my ms’s first cousin, closer to my age than hers. We lived next to each other in Mumbai, and Aban was my patient history teacher, fellow detective and dramatist. Enid Blyton books stirred our imaginations so that we went around calling ourselves “The Smart Two” (after her Famous Five) and conjuring up scenarios that needed us and us alone to solve the mysteries we created. Once we found X-rays on the rocks at Nepean Sea road, and this sent us both into overdrive mode as we created stories and yet more mysteries for us to solve.

Anahita works as a journalist with The Times of India, a writing on education, and she made us all proud when on the 26th November 2010 she was presented with the Sanskriti Award in the category of Journalism on behalf of Sanskriti Pratishthan. The ceremony took place at the India International Centre in New Delhi. With some of her winnings she treated her mum to a three-day flying visit to Malaysia. Having them with us brought much joy to us all and especially to my parents who so enjoy seeing their loved ones from India. An added bonus was having Kershasp, who was visiting us from Cleveland for two weeks.

It was quite a hectic three days for Aban and Anahita, starting with their all-night flight from Bombay which landed in KL at 05:30 the next morning followed by a virtually non-stop round of visits with my parents, shopping at Central Market and Ikea, watching the Chinese New Year Lion Dance at the Pavilion, and even a hike with Robert up the mountain to the canopy walkway. No rest for these intrepid travelers!

  More photos HERE