When you are married, and when you happen to be the lucky one (as they say) to have the number of saalis (sister-in-laws) that I have, and on top of that when your wife happens to be a part of a well-knit family and happens to share an amazingly good relationship with each one of them, then you surely got to be on your toes ;).

If you are wondering that I have been hit by the wedding bug, then you are not that wrong, and what can be considered as a rational and natural progression from my last post, it is but natural for me to talk about who other than my saalis. 

This reminds me of the tv show by the name of How I met your mother! and would take the liberty of transforming it just a little bit to title my current post as How I met my Saalis!

It is said in our Indian tradition that the in-laws house for a groom would look all deserted and incomplete if there were no saalis to make the same house look so happening and filled with enthusiasm.

Just imagine, you enter your in-laws house and you find your father-in-law lying on his couch and watching the same old tv soaps with your mother-in-law making all efforts in this world to make you feel comfortable. How dull and boring would it get after a certain point of time and you would feel like running away from the same, not because you don’t respect your in-laws but just because after a while, it gets boring.

To their credit, saalis are the ones who tend to get rid of the boredom and keep the entire house vibrant. Many a times, they tend to belong to the same age group. What can be better than this as you tend to share the same kind of thinking and perceptions about various things in life.

And when they happen to be as talkative as mine are, then you don’t even have to go that extra mile to start any sort of conversation. Before you realize, you already tend to become a part of a conversation, about which you might not have any clue what so ever, yet you find yourself totally engulfed in the chit-chat that ensues thereafter, and surprisingly you enjoy it to the core.

Now coming back to how I happened to meet each one of them, if I remember correctly, the first time I had the fortune of meeting them all was on the day of my engagement. But there was one among them, whom I had met earlier, courtesy one of my visits to Delhi, who happened to introduce each of them to me.

Little shy, that they looked in first instance, my perception was turned 180 degree round, as I began to interact with them on a more regular basis. 🙂 I will admit that it feels absolutely wonderful when you are being imparted such importance and you feel like the most important person on this planet earth, that might be one of the primary reasons why guys love to visit their in-laws place (taking a clue from one of my chachas (uncles) who in my opinion is really fond of visiting his in-laws place).

It is said that though from times immemorial, it is the sons who have been given more importance, in reality it is the daughters who tend to be more caring, more loving and certainly more supportive of their parents than the sons (which can surely be seen in today’s materialistic and selfish world wherein the sons tend to forget their responsibility of taking care of their parents in their old age, when they need them the most).

It is absolutely wonderful to see all my saalis be so much more responsible and so much more understanding and caring for their parents, than any other typical 21st century guy would. And the credit for such upbringing certainly goes, first to their grandparents and secondly to their parents, who have toiled day-in-day-out just to make sure, that they all get the best from this world and they all are made to grow into responsible and caring individuals, that they certainly are, today.

And when you happen to have so many of them, then you are often asked this question of who’s your favorite? Somehow, you don’t want to be caught up in this dilemma or trilemma etc. depending on the number of saalis that you have, for you don’t want to end up being Arjun from Mahabharata, and you certainly don’t want to go through the same dharam-sankat as he once had to ;).

For my part, I would always want the best for each one of them and would like to wish them all the very best in all the endeavors that they undertake during the course of their lives, and would advise them to keep rocking as they always do ;).

Source for Image:  http://www.jantoo.com/cartoons/keywords/sister-in-law