My Sister Rakhi

I, Sid, share a special bond with my sibling elder sister Rakhi. The relationship goes deeper than a Raksha bandhan bond. Without her my life would have been a zero. Rakhi was elder to me by just a year so we were like friends. 

Rakhi was born on the day it was Raksha bandhan that year, so it was a no brainer for my parents to name her Rakhi. But she had another name given by my grandparents and it was Vasundhara. So her name was styled Vasundhara Rakhi. But no one could call her by such a big name so she became just Rakhi to us. The very next year I was born during the ten day Ganesh puja so I was named Vignesh after the Lord Ganesh 's name. Even here my grandparents wanted to name me Siddhartha after Lord Buddha, so I became Vignesh Siddhartha or just Sid to my family and friends. 

During our growing up years there was lot of rivalry between us siblings leading to fights and jealousy. But at the end of the day we couldn't live separated. On one occasion, I remember, I was just four years old and Rakhi was taken by our maternal uncle to stay at their home. At night, I cried and cried and my mother had to sit up the whole night cradling my head in her lap because I was running a high fever. The next day when Rakhi had to return because of me, I became perfectly alright. The doctor who came to check up on me gave an advisory to my parents that it was best not to separate the two siblings till they grew up till adolescence. 

As we were of different genders, our playing items, events and friends were naturally different. But still we had some common games which we played together when others were not there. We had a small play ground in our back yard where there was a swing and a see saw. I used to do a lot of pranks on Rakhi on these two equipments. On the swing whoever was swinging had to be pushed to get the undulating feel. Once I purpose fully pushed the swing to the maximum undulation with Rakhi shouting her throat hoarse to not push so much because then she would suffer vertigo and fall.. But who cared, I was just enjoying the sadistic pleasure. Naturally as it had to happen, Rakhi lost her balance and had closed her eyes in fear. She let go of the rope and she was thrown high up in the air. Luckily our milkman was passing that way. He immediately made himself ready and timely caught the falling air borne Rakhi. She was saved in the nick of time. Temporarily, I was paralysed with fear . Rakhi had lost her senses. The milkman uncle carried Rakhi in his arm and laid her down on a soft bed in the house. After a glass of warm milk Rakhi was revived. But surprisingly, she was not a bit annoyed with me. This was my first lesson in our sibling love for each other. My mother just cautioned me because I was her pet but mildly chided Rakhi to have desisted from playing with Sid as I was a boy. Later on I received a thorough dressing down from my dad because Rakhi was his pet and he had received the complain from that cheeky milkman. Although I never tried any prank on the swing but on the see saw it was always in vogue. I would abandon the see saw when Rakhi had reached the top and I at the bottom. Then all of a sudden Rakhi would come down forcefully and hit the ground with a bang. Rakhi also tried the same thing with me but I was more agile and alert and averted any disaster to me. 

We were growing up in those years when our country was adopting privately owned multi channel television programmes. Till then we had regional languages government channels that operated within a fixed time and fixed criteria. 

Our family changed our black and white television to a colour one with a remote control to change the multiple channels according to our choice. This was a new concept for us and an unusual tool of amusement and also became a source of sibling rivalry. 

Rakhi would love to see the various soap serials and cooking programs and I was interested in viewing the sports and cartoon channels. So there was a mad scramble between us everyday to grab and possess the remote. This became a lingering problem every day. So I hit upon an idea. One night when the television was shut out I secretly took the remote and buried it under ground near to my bedroom window, to take it out as per my convenience. 

The next morning, there was a lot of hue and cry because the TV would not start without the remote. My grandfather was missing his favorite yoga session and my grandmother her Bhajans and devotional songs. My father could not browse through the news channels. But Rakhi was sceptical. She was eyeing me suspiciously. '' It must be Sid who has hidden the remote, '' she was heard complaining in her shrill voice. Everyone was busy searching the remote. Lot of precious time of everyone was wasted. I was enjoying every bit of it. '' See he is laughing and must be knowing where the remote is, '' Rakhi was trying to draw everyone's attention. My father became annoyed and questioned me, '' Where have you hidden it you brat. '' My mother couldn't bear any insult to me and asked my father to shut up. '' You are spoiling the child with your uncontrolled and blind love, '' my father warned my mother. Then there was a round of arguments between them till the time our grandparents intervened. 

Rakhi then pulled me aside and asked me quietly the destination of the remote. Then while I was digging up the remote from the ground Rakhi caught me but she didn't complain. This was another event I found out her selfless love for me and surprising maturity belying her age. She knew that if I was caught and complained, I would not only be reprimanded but severely beaten by my angry dad. My allegiance towards her gained credence and whole life I would remain her most trusted pillar of strength. 

No one was aware that we had our pet names between us. I called her cockroach because like this insect which had antennae, Rakhi was always aware of what all was going around her. She could predict impending disaster and had solution for all the problems. This special quality of hers I really admired and for this I remained her most obedient comrade in arms. She named me monkey because, I had the skill to climb up any tree in my age. This special skill helped me lots in my commando training in the army later on in life where I joined. 

As per the doctor's advisory of not being kept separated till our adolescence we were both admitted in a co-ed school in the same class. I started schooling early due to my 'super' intelligence as per our tuition teacher recommendation . We began school. This was another phase of our sibling bond age. There was rivalry, jealousy and admiration. Rakhi was the more hard working amongst us. But I always scored better than her. I could feel her getting dejected on not being able to beat me but I never found her to be jealous. Although our family would sometimes say that Rakhi was jealous of Sid in school. But I never believed it. Once she got better marks than me. This time, I felt the pain and then only I came to know how it feels to be trailing someone even after lot of hard work. As we were in the same class we had access to each others bag. On many a days I used to eat up her tiffin and she used to go hungry. But she never complained. No one in the house ever knew about it. Only my father used to tell my mother that she fill up Rakhi's tiffin box more because girls were in the habit of sharing their food. How correct it was and very much later I experienced this pain of hunger. Then my thought immediately would rewind and go back to the school days when countless of days my Rakhi didi had to go home hungry as her tiffin was gobbled up by her bully brother. But all this came to a stop abruptly. One of Rakhi's friends had the same type of tiffin box. So unmindfully, I stole it and enjoyed the contents before any body could know. But this girl was not like Rakhi and made a formal complaint to the headmaster. From then on we had to deposit our tiffin boxes before entering class and take it during lunch break. Rakhi knew that this new rule had hit me hard so she started voluntarily sharing her tiffin with me. But this didn't give me that mojo or enjoyment that I got from stealing. But this taught me one big lesson that Rakhi was always benevolently beside me in all the ups and downs in life. During my army days when I was alone and pondering I used to think about the love and sacrifice of Rakhi that was only possible for her. This compelled me to take a resolution to be beside my sister always. 

Slowly as I grew up and started taking on responsibilities, did I realise the amount of sacrifice and foresightedness Rakhi had. The more I realised the more I became drawn towards her. We would silently exchange these vows in our minds every year when she used to tie a rakhi on my wrist on the day of Raksha bandhan. I do not know what Rakhi resolved to do every Rakhi day because I never asked her and she never shared with me. But from her Benevolent face I could make out that it was only selfless love and prayers to God for my wellbeing. As the years went by, I began to realise this more and more. This special day of Raksha Bandhan gained more and more of significance as the years went by. 

Later on in life when I had joined the defence services and till then I made it a point to visit our home every Raksha Bandhan day each year. I kept this promise even during the time of war. Be it for a few hours, I would visit the house and have my hand tied. Because I only knew the inner strength I would get from my sister's blessings. 

Rakhi grew up to be a lawyer. As she was honest and diligent, she earned the respect of her clients, colleagues and the society at large. She had the rare distinction of identifying the inner qualities of the person standing in the witness box in the court. Also she could very accurately analyse the person standing in the witness box and with some mysterious strength could read that other person's mind. This was a very rare quality for which she was respected and admired. She would put across those type of questions that the person facing her could not avoid. The judges were very excited to hear present her case. She told me also to study law. As she would say that this profession would give him his earnings all life till death and there was no retirement. Later on I felt the importance of this statement So I graduated in legal studies in the army and started dabbling with the legal cases of the army. 

After the end of my short service commission, I retired from the army with pension and joined the legal firm of my sister. I became her junior and started assisting her in her cases and upgrading my legal knowledge. This is why I have said that without the help of Rakhi, I would have been zero. 

There was one memorable incident in her life and also mine as my life was intertwined with her. This must needs mention. While I was away in the army, Rakhi got married and of course I attended. But I couldn't be with her in her post marital life. So what all was happening I was not much aware of. In the holidays I rarely saw Rakhi and my parents were glum about her marital life. As I was too busy with my service life I couldn't give a penny for their thoughts. But somewhere I felt that all was not well. I tried to call up Rakhi sometime but as usual she was her stoic self always in full command of her situation. I couldn't get an iota of what all was happening. But I saluted and respected her and thought she would have been a hit in any profession she selected. Later, I came to know that Rakhi was married to the son of an eminent lawyer who himself was also a lawyer but not of the same caliber. This senior lawyer was so impressed with Rakhi and her judicial wit and wisdom that he loved her like his daughter. As their family was a well to do one with lots of immovable property and respect in the society, our parents agreed to give Rakhi in marriage. Rakhi's husband, my jamaibabu was a good man and loved Rakhi dearly what I had heard. But the spoil sport was the mother In law. Slowly she became very jealous of Rakhi due to her success and reputation in the society and over all the love showered upon her by her father in law. He was a very doting father in law and loved Rakhi dearly. He was madly in love with her knowledge of jurisprudence. The mother in law couldn't stand this and slowly became more and more jealous of Rakhi and then started scheming to harm her both mentally and later on physically. For this she needed an accomplice, so she began hen pecking her son. What I heard that initially he was reluctant but due to pressure from his mother and his love for her, he teamed up with his mother to do all sorts of damage to Rakhi. But they were not aware of who they were up against. Rakhi was better than their two heads combined. They indulged in baseless harrasment even leading to domestic violence. But Rakhi was unperturbed. She knew the strength and weakness of her opponents. Her husband's professional life began to suffer due to this childish skirmishes, as he was finding it difficult to concentrate. He kept on losing cases until finally he stopped getting calls from clients. His father would always advise him about his wife's superior merits and asked him to suppress his ego and team up with her to strengthen their legal team. Ultimately when finding his back against the wall my jamaibabu changed his tack and with reluctance accept Rakhi as his senior trying very hard to suppress his burnt up pride. Later on after my retirement from the army, I also joined this law firm and then I found my brother in law being very obedient and taking orders unconditionally. This event in the life of Rakhi made me look at her in a different light and I bowed down in respect like a devotee to my God. So as I wrote in the beginning, I once again reiterate that our relationship goes very deep beyond the bond of a simple brother sister RakshaBandhan bond. This transcends all borders and ends in qualifying as a God and devotee bond.