A Blessing Like You!

This day will always be special to me and to everyone I hold close, for it is your birthday today!

I don’t know where and how time flies, but here we are, all grown up, mature and all the bullcrap they would love to call us. On the flipside, we are still the li'l cubs who love to curl up in our mother’s lap, telling her all our problems and feeling light.

Since the time I opened my eyes to today, you have been a critical part of my existence and I hold this very close to my heart. While fighting and bickering back in childhood, I never knew I would start revering you when I would be grown up! There has been a phase in life when I hated your intrusion in my matters, but I am surprised to look back today and find it all pragmatic. I thank you for silently supervising what I ever did (haha)! ☺

All this time, one thing that I didn’t realize was how you have grown as a person. This boy, a rebel, I know has actually become a man of honor. I see a caring and loving person in you and this really fills me up with immense joy. I thank God that He chose me to be your sister. I would pray, with all my might, to get this privilege in every birth.

If ever there was a match of your brotherhood versus my sisterhood, you would have won by the biggest margin ever. I failed to have done anything impressive for you till date and yet you love me so much. I actually fail to find the reasons why ☺  

I am amazed how you have become my papa after papa. Bhai, here’s your first baby! ☺

You hold this space in my heart and our dadda will have to shift a bit in his chair to accommodate you there. ☺   

Despite the distance, you have been there for me, always standing like a wall. I cannot thank you enough for this. Deep down my heart, I am always sending you good vibes and truly wish that you be happy in all your endeavors and lead a life truly worthy.

Sending you one tight hug and a lot of puchheees!

I love you!

The Aura of the Airport

This is one first-hand experience, ‘another first’ this year, of seeing someone off at the airport. I have always been on the other side of the story, happily bidding adieu, boarding the flights while looking forward to my journeys. During all these farewell cheers, I could never understand why my parents used to shed tears, for a dimwit like me had never felt that heart-wrenching sentiment of biding au revoir and returning home with a feeling of having left something at the airport.

This time it was my brother who decided to take his career to a new level, stepping out of his comfort zone, punching hard the challenge, right on its nose. And there, a new experience set its first foot in my life. The aura there, it just gets into your nerves, slowly reaching each limb, weakening them from within, making them anorexic that you just go weak and cannot help but cry.

I stood there, noticing the scenario around and here, I've tried jotting down the snippets of the things I can, now, only sum up to call it all a ‘feeling’. I saw parents hugging their kids tight, with tears in their eyes, though waving their hands, still unable to say goodbye; fathers clutching mothers’ hands and holding them while they walked out of the parking spaces; spouses leaving and the partners who got to stay not able to bid adieu with a smile (I also saw a couple or two cuddling, which, apparently, made my heart grow fonder and brought along an 'aww' monent); a few grandmothers who were checking from a never-ending checklist the things their kids, who were leaving, should do when they land and the things they should never do when they land; friends exchanging hugs and high-fives — uncounted prayers, well-wishes, hugs, kisses, talks - sad and happy - all enclosed in oodles of LOVE. You don’t feel the world is going to come to an end, you want to forget about wars, you don’t want to remember all those who have been hostile to you, not helped, never cared… you only want to remember this moment, the feeling, the thoughts, what you should say, what you shouldn't, the prayers and the best wishes. The only thing that makes one cry is the aura of the airport, which makes LOVE flow along!

I remember this dialog, which actually made me skip a beat when I'd heard it for the first time, from the movie, Love Actually:

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”

I concede that I shed a few tears when I was seeing my brother off, but I cried my guts out during my travel back home – this experience possibly drew me closer to him, way more closer than I’d ever thought I’d ever be. I think the distance does that to you, the AURA does that to you!

You know me how!

Have you ever adopted a plant or a pet? If yes, you will better comprehend what I am trying to put forth. Witnessing a life grow in front of your eyes is an experience of a lifetime. And if you have a sibling, who is about the same age as yours, you might as well accuse me of copying your thoughts and putting into words.  

Reaching at this point in life, where the meanings of most of the words don’t actually remain the same and it’s the tone in which you say them what actually counts, when the pitch of your voice unknowingly reflects your mind and your acts need to be moderated aptly before they are being exhibited, I have felt a coldness creeping down my spine each day as I’ve stepped closer to being a young adult.

Spilling out my sentiments has never been this tough, as all I am feeling is a sudden dearth of words and an almost choked mind. Sharing a lifetime — the best part of our lives, when the life itself does not seem more than a word, when tough is tying the laces of shoes, doing one’s homework, preparing for exams, convincing parents to give a 5-rupee note, asking for ten more minutes to sleep, playing for an hour more, when fear is of not doing the homework, of being caught lying, of scoring low, of mysterious ‘ghosts’, of not being with each other, of getting scolded; the golden era when we actually break the cocoon of innocence and venture into adulthood, from just liking to crush, infatuation and love, from school dress to branded clothes, from a transparent relationship to a more so a translucent one — can be summed up in no other word than ‘magic’. The feeling transcends all other types of emotions in the world.

All that I fear is things just might not remain the same, say after a couple of years. But I am happy to have a person with me who knows me more than anyone else in this world, who I have literally grown up with, who has seen me crack from a seed and finally become a fruitful tree, who has been there like a roof, a shield and who has stood by like a true ELDER BROTHER. No matter what life makes us face tomorrow, I pray that the love between the siblings remains as fresh, as immaculate, and as overwhelming as it has always been.

PS: I am really sorry for an emotional one, but that’s me *rolling tearful eyes* J