From macro to micro

Both my late paternal and maternal grandfathers were one of six and five siblings. My mother is one of seven siblings, while my father is the only son with a (late) elder sister and two younger ones. Two weeks back my aunt wept in a dingy room while a candle let me hide my soggy eyes from revealing much. For her it was the night her last surviving aunt passed away. "Now only one uncle is all we have left", is what she had to say. Then my thoughts drifted to her uncle, my late grandfather's younger brother who according to kinship rules is also my grandfather. I wondered how he must be feeling after losing all his siblings to old age or sickness. 

Then I pictured myself in such a situation. I realized that there is one thing the older generations have had which we shall never have i.e. a large number of siblings. You can call it the curse of modernity but with speedy progress we have become more practical and realistic. Practically it doesn't make sense to have n number of siblings anymore. Most of us are happy with just one brother or sister, or in a few lucky cases like mine you can have the luxury of having both a sister and a brother. Economically too it might seem like a viable option. But a look at my maternal side reveals how important and lovely it is to have so many brothers and sisters. It basically means there is always that one person you can talk to, that there is never a dull moment when you have such a large family circle. Celebration or times of distress, you know they'll always be around to help out or at least provide insights on how certain things need to be dealt with. I remember my eldest Uncle teaching my aunt every ritual when her husband passed away. A cousin taking charge of erecting all the needed tents during my sister's wedding. He ensured that the bamboo and other required items were well in place and taken care of. These are just few of the things people don't just do for anyone anymore. With my generation this bond may have been weakened. We keep getting more and more materialistic. Family values disintegrate and succumb to extracting immediate benefits instead of long term goals. 

And then we come to another extreme society like the one we find in China. The one-child-per-family policy might be a move by the CCP to curb population explosion, however have people thought of the consequences? One major outcome will be an entire generation without any uncles or aunts. How do we cope with a world like that? For me, it is a scary proposition to think of what my life would be without the people in it right now.