7 Home and Memories

She prepared Vareniki. Russians like to eat veg dumplings called Vareniki ( These dumplings are filled with mashed potatoes, cabbage, sauerkraut, cottage cheese or even cherries). They are quite close to the vegetarian momos that are available in Nepalese and Tibetan restaurants in India. She also made Blinis taste great with honey, jam or sour cream.

She prepared Blinis, which look like french pancakes and taste great with honey, jam or sour cream, but she fried mushrooms and cheese to go with the Blinis. Finally, she prepared a salad of beetroot, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini and cucumbers and laced it with olive oil and locally grown spices all obtained from the private farm.

It took her two hours to get everything ready and by the time the food was ready, it was almost 11.30 am. She had asked her family members to come to the library.

This library was her parents' library. There were medical books arranged on book shelves on two of the walls starting from the floor to the ceiling. One wall had shelves with books of great authors as well as biographies of important personalities. There were some novels too. The fourth wall had books that she was using and were on various stages of History. Not only of Russia but the whole world. There were books on Indology and what on the subject that she had been doing her thesis on. She had placed the 7 books written by Dr Brain L Weiss on this part of the wall along with the book on the interpretation of dreams.

She headed towards the library and saw that no one had come down yet. There was a gong that her mother used to hit to call everyone in the family for meals. It was too much effort for her to go upstairs and downstairs all day. So her father had bought this huge gong that could be heard from all corners of the house when it was rung. However, she decided not to use it at the moment but to ascend the stairs and call everyone personally to come down to the library to talk.

Instead of using the gong to call everyone down, Tania had decided to call everyone downstairs and as she was ascending the stairs, she saw her Dada ji and Dadi ji descending the stairs followed by her Naniji and her maternal uncle(Mamu).

"Let me help you?" She stopped and grabbed hold of her Dadi's hand and started to guide her to descend the stairs. Thereafter, she guided them all to the library.

"Lunch is almost ready, I just need to do the finishing touches. Let me know if 1 p.m. suits you? You would be tired after the long journey, you would want to rest."

"After lunch you all can rest for a few hours. Then I can take you around to show you a few places in Moscow."

"No child, We have come to see you, talk to you, to get to know you better. We would prefer spending the time here with you today and can do a Moscow tour with you tomorrow."

"I am sure your Nani ji and Mamu ji (Maternal Uncle) would agree with me," Her Dada ji immediately replied.

She Ushered her relatives into the study and simultaneously said, "Please be seated.

This is the library of my parents."

"They spent hours in this library reading various books of medicine and surgery."

"Some books here, could be the ones you initially bought for your son and daughter ."

Her Dada ji and Dadi ji as well as her Nani ji and mamu started to check the huge room.

They found the books that they had bought for their children before they had boarded their flights for Moscow.

Suddenly, her Dada ji saw the wall containing her books on History from the early Indus civilization till India gained independence from the British rule. In addition, he found some books about Past Life Regression.

He called her Dadi ji to have a look. Her Dadi ji was looking at the books that her son had brought from India when he had got admission in a Russian Medical college. Similarly, Nikita, Svetlana's mother, was reliving her moments in their family history when she and her husband had bought their daughter a few books on medicine.

Both of them looked through the books on various stages of Indian History, They also saw the books on Past life Regression and the book on interpretation of dreams. They looked at each other and then Tania could see the eyes of her grandparents glistering with un-shed tears.

Tania guessed that something in her side of the wall had triggered an immense emotional response from her paternal grandparents. She had a mystery to solve and would get to the bottom of it after everyone had their lunch.

Tania again asked them to sit around the study table.

"I think we need to see the faces of each one of us while we are discussing my future." Tania thought.

Everyone took their seats around the Oval table. Tania then tried to explain the events from her parents death to date. Everyone was listening silently. It must have been a painful experience for their Tania, they all thought.

Her paternal grandparents tried to convince her to go back to India with them. Simultaneously, her maternal grandmother and her Mamu tried to convince her to go with them to Ukraine. They gave their reasons from being the only child ( India) to having a family of siblings/cousins to look after her(in Ukraine). They put forth their arguments in a convincing manner.

If anyone else had been there instead of her, she was sure that person would have chosen straight away where he wanted to live. However, she had already decided that she wanted to see both worlds before she decided. Hence, she waited for an opening in their sentences to put her points across.

"'Would you like a cup of coffee?" She asked everyone. She had thought that the meeting would turn into an acrimonious debate if it was allowed, and she did not want this to happen.

Soon she was back with five cups filled with coffee which she placed before the elders. But wait, where were her dada ji and dadi ji? They had gone to her wall and were talking among themselves.

She asked what was the issue? She had gauged that this wall, particularly the books on Past Life Regression had made them wait.

"Nothing, We were just admiring your collection of books," said Dadi ji.

"In the afternoon we would like to talk to you about Past Life Regression."

"Yes,Of course," replied Tania.

Now it was the turn of Nikita to add a few lines.

"We need to finish our discussion before lunch if possible," Nikita spoke authoritative voice. " If we do not arrive at a solution, then we need to carry on discussions after lunch,"

"I have no intention of her living alone in this huge house anymore." she voiced her opinion." We elders have been pig-headed in the past and our children had suffered. We as parents also suffered but now Mira and I will not let this suffering happen to our granddaughter."

"Yes, agreed," replied Mira.

"Lunch is almost ready, like I told you earlier, we can continue our discussion after coffee."