Didi

“Nishi, this is your Uncle.” said Urmila, as she introduced her cousin Prashant to her daughter-in-law.

Nishi touched Prashant’s feet out of respect.

“Stay happy my child. I am your mother-in-law’s……..”

“I am seeing you for the first time but I have heard a lot about you. Mom always talked about the time that she spent with you in her childhood. One time, you even…”

“Yes, it must be thirty-five years ago. I might have been eleven years old. I and my sister whom I used to call Didi and your mother-in-law, grew up together in our village. Sister was just a few months older than me but was always more mature. I don’t know how girls become solemn so quick but boys never get even a fraction of in his whole life.”

“Uncle, what happened?”

“Nothing as such. It was Holi. Sister was drying dung cakes on the second floor of the house. I also went up to the terrace and noticed that a beehive had formed near the stairs. I immediately told my sister that I would break the beehive to collect honey and asked her to go down.

Didi said “Prashant, wait for a few minutes. There are some more dung cakes to be dried. And by the way, this is not your cup of tea!”

I did not listen to her and threw a stick at the beehive. The bees got disturbed and started attacking us. I escaped down the stairs but sister was stuck. The vast number of bees pounced on her. Hearing her cries, the entire family rushed up to the terrace, wrapped her in a blanket and brought her down. I got scared and ran away from the village. I thought that I will get a good thrashing from the family members.

“Your sister would have got very angry with you!”

“No, sister was falling unconscious frequently. There was no doctor in the village. She was being given some pepper heated in water. Sister would wake-up and then fall unconscious often. But whenever she got up, she would say “Please don’t scold Prashant. Call him now.”

“And then...”

“The family members found me and got me home. As per sister’s wish, no one said a word against me. After a few minutes, I stood near my sister with my head hung in shame. Even in such pain, Sister was happy to see me. Sister recalls those moments even now and laughs at it. But I feel bad at my ignorance.”

“Come on, take some snacks”, said Prashant as he saw his sister come over. He turned his head a bit and wiped away the tears.