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Kishan Patel
Mrs. Raymond
UWRT 1102
14 January 2014
Learning the Virtues of His Affectionate Grandmother
George Burns, an interesting person, once said happiness is having a large, loving,
caring, close-knit family in another city. He argues that all these elements combined are
characteristics of a happy family. Im interested in the caring aspect of a happy family, which
brings me to say, my family consists of the perfect role model that accomplishes the task of being
caring. My grandmother from the patrilineal side is a person who displays less self-interest and
more about satisfying everyone elses needs. She is truly the most caring person my family has to
offer.
To start off, my grandmother was born and raised in a small village called Saras, which is
located in the Indian state of Gujarat. Now back in her days of being brought up resources were
limited and technology was to a bare minimum. Above all educational institutions were limited,
resulting in low literacy rates. My Grandma grew up with two sisters, three stepsisters and one
stepbrother. Just imagine how hectic it can get in this kind of family. My grandmother never felt
as if she was deprived of any aspect of her childhood. Even though she had stepsisters and
stepbrothers, all siblings took care of one another no matter what. Ultimately her family became
much greater than she expected. Together they all ate, slept and went to school as if they were a
unified squad. When dinner was not enough to feed everyone, my grandmother would divide the
meal equally and let everyone enjoy what was made. A sense of closeness developed over the
years as all the siblings grew old enough to get married and move on to their second life. After

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my grandmother got married she realized that taking care of everyone elses needs was going to
require some hard work.
My grandmothers second life lies in another high-spirited village called Dhatva. This
village is located on the banks of the Tapi River in the district of one of Indias highly populated
cities known as Surat. Much of Indian culture resides upon the unfavorable Caste System, in
which each member is inherited in its own caste. My family inherited the caste of Vaishyas- a
common caste that includes members who are merchants or landowners. Agriculture was
abundant around Dhatva, which is why most of us owned and maintained our own land. On a
day-to-day basis my grandmother would wake up early morning to make tea and biscuit for
everyone and then she would go work at the farm during the season. Another job was to wash the
cattle we owned and get milk every morning from our buffalo. At the end of the day my
grandmother would be exhausted from all the work that was completed during the day, but she
never complained about any aspect. She was grateful for acquiring each role and not only that
she was grateful for working together as a family.
Today at this very moment, my grandmother is at my house abiding by the same
principles she grew up with her six siblings. In my opinion she is a workaholic, whose only job is
to look after everyones best interest. Im a lucky guy to be a part of a family that is traditionoriented.