Flashback -25 years ago…

Parents (introducing us to guests): these are my children, say namaste kids…
Guest (looking at my brother) Oh my God, he is so handsome, beautiful green eyes, golden hair, and those eye brows, perfection!
Guest (looking at me) Hmmm…nice hmmmm name.

That’s the reaction I have grown up with, which by the way did wonders for my self confidence. My brother has been the most good looking child in the entire family and I have been, well, just average, guess he got the best genes from our parents and I was stuck with leftovers.

Few days ago it was Indian festival Rakhi (or Rakhsha Bandhan), it’s a festival where sister ties a holy thread on brother’s wrist. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and pledges to look after her. Since I was born, we have celebrated this festival with much aplomb .Now, several years later, Pacific and Indian Ocean apart, I still mail him rakhi every year. Don’t get me wrong, just like brothers and sisters all over the universe we too follow the sibling’s cosmic law of getting on each other’s nerves (I think he does a better job than I).

All my girl friends use to be gaga over him, and some even became friends with me, so that they could get to know him better (yup, another ego booster for me). He was a usual pest, pulling my hair, calling me dunce, ridiculing my style of clothes. These kind of brotherly deeds always made me wonder, what a wonderful life if would be, if I was the only child.

For some reason, I was wondering about the same recently, and it smacked me in my cranium, I would never had the passion for music, or be unruffled in catastrophe, generosity would probably be learnt and not just way of being, never ever giving out a secret you have been entrusted with, and not eating ketchup because it is animals blood, well, if we leave french fries accompany aside, my brother knowingly or unknowingly has taught me tons.

I “copy catted” him in several ways I thought he was cool, and I bet he doesn’t know that and if he did, he would be tugging at my pigtails right now.