The lost ties of kinship
“Man is a social animal” – something that I had learnt during my Moral Science classes in school. During that time (I am talking about the 1990s), this statement meant that we, as human beings, must dwell as a society; we are, each, the part of one human nation and we must cherish that love and compassion for each other. That was a time when fights were resolved by a handshake or rather a “thumbshake” which we used to call “ abba .” Cousins that time were our first friends and such friendship literally meant a single soul residing in two different bodies. And most importantly, we had experienced the strong bond called “Family”. Holidays meant seeing our cousins and having a lot of fun. My sister and our first cousin were called “ Pabho Jura ” because they were literally inseparable, when together. I still remember that my maternal cousins were more scared of my mother than their own. In short, there was no discrimination between my child and my brother’s child in terms of love, ...