ON Piku - How the apple does not fall far from the tree

I loved the movie Piku for two reasons.

Reason 1. - Every Bengali boy/girl has an embarrassing nick name, by which he/she is called "very fondly" at home. My nick name happens to be Piku. Before Bollywood and Hindi movies popularised the names "Riya" and "Piku" , I thought that my parents pulled the biggest joke on me by naming me Riya and subsequently giving me the nickname of Piku. I really didn't know which one was worst. This is what used to happen, when people asked me my name in the pre- popularized days -

Person - hi, what is your name?

Me - Riya.
Person - What???!!! ( too short to catch at a single hearing)
Me - RRRRIIIIYYYYYAAAAA
Person - Is that your real name??!!!
Me - (WTF) ya, it's my name. Riya
Person - ooooohhhhhhh, Riya, as in Riya Sen. (with a cheeky grin)
Me - (really mad at being compared to the  Dumbest Bong on earth). Nooooo......RRRRRIIIIYYYAAAA SSSAARRRKKEERR.
Person - (still laughing)

Well, my actual name was Atrayee Sarker, (for those who don't know Atrayee is a River in India) given to me at my birth. What made my parents switch to Riya? I have no idea.

And then to top it all, PIKU actually happens to be a boy's name. Yes, I have spent many days in my childhood being laughed at for been called Piku (sob sob). But Soojit Sarkar made it right for me and after all these years Piku seems to be even better than Riya. Especially, after my cousins and relatives have created many variations of Piku , such as Picklu, Pickli, Pixie, Pickles,  adding various degrees of love to it.

 

Reason 2. - Insanity runs in the family. It really does. Whatever you find something strange/ embarrassing/ irksome/ trying/ funny about your parents today is what you will become tomorrow. How I used to laugh at my Mom for cleaning all ready cleaned dishes hundred  times and mopping the floor thousand times. Well, now I do the same.  How I used to be amused at my Grandmom for collecting different soaps and storing them. It turns out, I have the same habit. How my Mom gets really angry with me, when I prefer to have my food in a bowl rather than a plate, and put all the different dishes together and just mix everything with rice. "It's an insult to my cooking, you never get the taste of anything, if you mix everything together", my Mom would say, then after a little while she'd add, "just like your grandmother you are".
And how very like my Dad, I would rather make a very lame joke in a serious situation than face it. How very like my Dad, I would rather laugh out loud at all the grand failures and sadness of my life, trying to lighten what is all ready sitting heavy in my heart. I would get so angry when my Dad would never take me seriously, and just keep laughing or make some really bad joke when I am telling him about my troubles. Now I know why, coz that is exactly what I do. Daddy was taking me very seriously, just not showing it and he was just saying don't worry, be happy. And so the list go on and on.
Getting back to Piku, even though Deepika's character is so different from mine , it struck a chord. Family always does. Sometimes annoying , sometimes irritating, sometimes hilarious,  but at all times a part of who we are.
For it is our biggest inheritance -  all the small traits that we inherit from our parents and grandparents and then pass on to our kids. For, it's all in the Jeans.