I have not heard from my No. 2 son for two or three years. He does not respond to my electronic-mail messages any longer. The last few were mere happy-birthday messages, but they also remained unanswered. Not a peep from him. Puzzled, I just googled his name. Knowing that he plays guitar, at which he is purportedly quite good, I clicked on a clip from a concert he had with another fellow roughly his age, who also plays guitar. To my amazement, I could not tell which one was which. Not a clue. The last time I saw him was nine years ago, when he was ten. Of course, he has changed a lot in the intervening period. But I was still amazed by the clip. “My No. 2 son,” I kept mumbling as I shook my head. Either of the two fellows in the clip could be he. In the end, I turned the computer off. Quite unsentimental about family ties, I was still shaking my head in utter disbelief.