Raksha Bandhan

On this Raksha Bandhan, I want to express my gratitude towards my brother, the most humble person I have seen in my life by writing a blog dedicated to him.

From where do I start, a brother-sister relation is most beautiful in its childhood so I begin from there. From what I have heard from my parents, when my mom was carrying with me and whenever my brother was asked if he wants a brother or sister it seems he always said sister J and when I was born, it was past midnight and my four years old brother was awake and celebrating my birth jumping and screaming. Our childhood must have been very memorable. I don’t remember all of it but from the moments our parents have captured in photographs I can say we definitely must have had a good time. All I remember is he bullying me, not involving me in his games, not letting me play with his toys and me crying for all those things and me getting parent’s sympathy and making him get scolding for being a bad elder brother. The usual sibling thing.

Then as we grew up, my father got promoted and had to accept out of state transfer to some town in north India, my brother was in higher secondary by this time so for his better education my parents decided that he stays back here in Karnataka and we three would travel. It must have been difficult for both my parents and brother too but it was for his good they took this decision but the small little girl in me didn’t appreciate their decision, I wanted my brother to come with us, and I couldn’t stay without him. I cried so much on our first Raksha Bandhan not together that year. One of my friends from another kannadiga family had to be my brother for that day to console me.

After three years of staying away finally we were all living together. My god, we fought so much during this time, for remote, for food, for anything and everything, we sometimes fought without any reason. Running around the house hitting each other. I feel it so funny today but that time it was a do-or-die WWF situation. My mom was so fed up with us, she locked us in a room one day and told us to fight as much as possible but after an hour one of us should come out alive. We would fight with each other but also we would fight for each other. We never let anyone say a word about the other even if it were our parents. He was a very protective brother. We was always concerned about who I hang out with, who are my friends. He made sure I am safe wherever I am.

The most memorable days of us is the time when we stayed together in Bangalore. He was back from US and I had just moved to Bangalore. We decided we rent a house and stay so our parents could visit us often. We had pact, we wouldn’t cook in the morning on weekdays and it’s just the dinner we have at home. I enhanced all my cooking skills during this time and he was the victim. Sometimes when I got stuck at work, he would prepare dinner. On weekends, he went to play cricket in the morning, I would clean the house and while returning he would have breakfast packed and we would enjoy it watching TV and with a hot cup of tea. Those were the days I cherish the most. I was living with family and yet had all the space and freedom. Take bath at 4 PM, watch TV all day, call your friends home anytime, eat junk food all day and drink tea at 12 AM. He never said a word.

The most difficult phase of our life was when he met with an accident, a major one. But it was during this time when our bond became stronger. It was a Friday night, I was at home waiting for him to return from work, dinner was ready. He would usually be home by 9 PM, it was 9.30 PM he didn’t come. I thought he must be stuck in traffic and made a casual call to him. He said it’s raining heavily and he may reach in half an hour. It was 10.15 PM, I got a little worried and called him again, No answer. 10.30 PM and still nothing. At around 11 PM, I got a call from him and he asked to come down. He usually would call me down if he had bought something big for the house and to help him carry it upstairs. But this time he was lying in his colleague’s car with blood stains all over his dress and he couldn’t move. It was horrifying to see him like that. He described how he was hit by a bike and then came under a BMTC bus. We had to immediately take him a multi-specialty hospital, I was shocked I didn’t know what to do, my brain had frozen. 

I just went up, locked the house, carried my purse and sat beside him in the car. We then went to the hospital, they said they have to do MRI scan to know how injured he was. It took almost three hours for them to finish it and prepare the report. Only I know how difficult those three hours were. I couldn’t even call my parents during those odd hours and scare them. It was around 2 AM that the on-duty doctor came to me and my brother’s two colleagues and told us that the injury was major and he had a pelvic bone fracture and had to undergo a surgery. He also suggested I call elders in the family. It was time to call my parents. My mom answered the call after 2-3 rings in a panicky voice, I knew she couldn’t take the news, so I spoke to my dad and told him it was a minor accident but he needs to be admitted and asked them to take the first train possible.

After finishing all the hospital formalities his colleagues came with us till the ward and left. Then the rest of the night, we both couldn’t sleep. He was still in shock for what had happened, the accident scene kept flashing again and again in front of his eyes. He was cursing those few seconds of his life. He started questioning what if he couldn’t walk at all for rest of his life. Don’t know from where I got all the courage that day to console him, answer all his doubts, and give him hope, strength and support. I think god makes you strong during the tough time.

Next day my parents arrived, we had our moral support now. I felt a little relieved. By now the news had spread in his office and among his other friends. Only that day did I realize my usually silent brother had such a huge circle of friends. There was queue to visit him, his school friends, college friends, colleagues and our relatives all came to meet him. The watchman asked me if the patient was a celebrity or something. I replied with a smile and told him ‘YES, indeed he is a celebrity of some sort’. The day he got operated was his birthday, it was a rebirth for him. Now that he has completely recovered and the sportsman in him is back in action, this incident just feels like a bad dream.

Whenever it came to my marriage he would always say, it will be a wedding that will be remembered for years and he made it a reality. I am blessed to have him in my life. Whenever I need him, he is just a phone call away. I can’t thank him enough for things he has done for me and keeps doing for me. On this day, I wish him best of everything in life. May god bless him to be strong and courageous always. May he spread the love and peace that he always carries with him. Love you loads Anna. Hoping this gets me a special gift this year J