My sister, my strength

I have been brought up in a very close knit family. But as the child of working parents, I got very less time from my father and mother. I am the younger of the two siblings and hence my elder sister has been a mother to me. Though she is just three years older to me, but maybe its the maternal gene or pure love that she has always treated me like a baby. When I was just three and she six, she used to comb my hair, tie up my shoe laces just like a mother would do while going to school.

So I am more of a sister's boy than a mamma's boy. 

As we grew up we drifted apart physically but got fonder of each other. We were in different medical colleges in two different cities. But there used to be two days in the calender when nothing could keep us apart...her birthday and of course Rakshabandhan. When Jabong.com announced the #Selfiewithsibling contest, I dug into my Rakhee diaries and got nostalgic.

About twenty years ago when we were in school, my didi had gone to NCC camp. Rakshabandhan always falls in the rainy season. She was posted in a remote area far from our hometown of Varanasi. No one was allowed to see her during the camp. It could not have been possible that I would not visit her on Rakshabandhan...I had to meet her at any cost. So my parents accompanied me to her camp posting. We travelled the entire day by train and then took an autorickshaw and then walked across the forest to reach her camp. It was raining cats and dogs and was muddy everywhere. But nothing could deter me from meeting her. Finally we reached her tent.

Those were not the days of mobile phone. My sister never expected us to turn up but deep inside she was dying to meet me. So she was immensely surprised when she found me at her door step. Our joy knew no bounds. I took out the rakhee and let her tie it on my wrist. Since we were not allowed to stay there, we immediately had to return, all amidst the rain ....all the way back to Varanasi. That journey remains the most testing of all in all these years. Nothing can stop from meeting my darling mother like sister on Rakshabandhan.

 

 

With my darling Didi on this year's Rakshabandhan