TALES AND TINKLES OF FAMILY LIFE.
One of my friends on an oil rig where I was deployed in the 1980s was from an Army family. He had grown up in cantonments of town like Dehradun and Meerut. His conversation would be peppered with tales about going on in the homes of his friends, whose parents were referred to as Uncles and Aunties – all elder gentlemen were Uncles and all elderly ladies were Aunties.
After passing out of school where he became interested in human anatomy, he joined the Armed Forces Medical College, (AFMC), in Pune which was then Poona. And the gathered more stories about doctor and nurse Uncles and Aunties. Not just stories, but Jokes and Limericks with which he regaled us — he mesmerized audience.
I think in hindsight that that may be all stories and tales and jokes and limericks were not really from the army background, but collected from other miscellaneous sources also. For instance in the Harry Potter stories, there is a character, Ms Rosemary Marlowe, who kept a diary, which also contained some limericks of which two are reproduced below for your amusement.
FROM THE DIARY OF MS ROSEMARY MARLOWE:
“An ‘Aunty’ who lived in Mumbai,
Cultivated a romantic sigh;
Thinking to seduce
Young men on the loose
Who rejected her, saying “Nice try!”
But this ‘Aunty’ recovered apace,
Like the tortoise and hare in the race;
Her romantic sighs
Appealed to mature guys
Who offered her all shades of
embrace.”
Aunts or Aunties are funny creatures — funny as in funny strange, and also in funny “ha ha”.
Read on for some choice classics:
Aunt Fanny made everyone smile,
A beautiful woman with style;
She was happy and g ay,
Kept bitterness at bay,
Being with her was always worthwhile.
To my talented, lovely Aunt Jane,
Who took me for walks in the rain;
A landscape painter;
And a fine entertainer,
Fond memories will always remain.
My Aunt Eva was quite the trip,
That big personality would make everyone flip;
Once she got naked and had us floored,
Did a swim into the pool off the diving board,
I think a little too much Scotch she did dip.
An aunt can be very sweet and a little our, but always overflowing with love:
“What’s an Aunt like jalebi but sugar fried,
And where the infant who never cried;
Where t he lover who’s never lied,
Or the wind-blown willow that never sighed?”
ABOUT MS ROSEMARY MARLOWE:
Rosemary Marlowe (nee Clarkson) (April 1960), better known as Rose or Rosie, was a Muggle-born witch born into the Clarkson family. She was a younger sister of a wizard Thomas Clarkson who was honored within the Order of the Phoenix for eliminating two of the most notorious Death Eaters, Amalric Mort and Gordon MacDougal.
She was born in Draught’s Hill, a village located somewhere in Northern England. Rosemary grew up knowing of magical potions as the village she lived in had quite a few wizarding families. She began her education in 1971 sorted into the Gryffindor House.
During the height of the First Wizarding War, her friend Alicia Vie and brother Thomas were murdered. While she urged her parents to move somewhere safer, they did not comply, reasoning that no witch or wizard will scare them off. She stayed with her family until the war was finished.
In late 1981 she began working as an Archivist at the British Ministry of Magic Records Room where she met Rowan Marlowe, a pure-blood wizard who worked as an Auror.
In the mid-80s, the pair got married and later had a daughter and three sons, one of whom was named after their uncle, Thomas.
