Patriarchy

It was a Rakshabandhan to be cherished.

My mother laid out the thali with a few decorative threads, sweets, vermilion, and rice, and asked me to go ahead with the rituals. I was doing it for the first time in the tenth year of my life, and feeling great about it. I missed out on buying atrociously large sponge Rakhis for my naughty brother, and on the gifts that all my female friends used to get.

The reason for not doing it earlier did not sound very convincing, but we had to play along. My grandmother lost one of her many sons on this auspicious day, and there … no more Rakhi celebrations. It happened long before I was born, but I felt like a loser.

And what happened to change the course of history now? It was the birth of another son in the family on the same day, my cousin Rakshit. Rakshit was too young to matter. All that mattered was that we could celebrate the day like all others in the neighborhood.

Loud voices break the reverie and bring me back to the present moment. I’m in a beautiful resort, attending the wedding of my cousin’s daughter. Rakshit happens to be the maternal uncle (Mama) of the bride but is absent. Instead, we hear a loud argument on the phone where he warns others from trying to contact him.

“All bonds between us have ended. Do you understand, Mr. Mathur?”

I notice only my uncle’s crestfallen face and his gasping for breath. He is soon taken to the doctor.

Rakshit and his elder sister have fallen out over the years. Allegations and counter-allegations have been made about claiming inheritance. Like a true patriarch, Rakshit believes that he is the sole heir to his father’s assets and his sister has no right to a rupee or gram of gold, forget the real estate.

My uncle (Rakshit’s father) is silent. I wonder if this is what they anticipated during the lavish celebrations surrounding his birth.

Will he support his daughter or son? 

sometimes

siblings kill a story

and

friends take it ahead…

a shared history

shared assets

shared home

defeated

by shared thoughts

non-judgmental companionship,

mutual respect and care

nothing more…

maybe a spouse

maybe a house

clash of interests

in an unfair will

drives apart

those nurtured

in the same

body and heart

then there’s something

called personality…

scattered genes

in different patterns

with exposure

to different worlds

philosophy, allegiance

-being true to self

means ditching an opponent

in a sibling’s garb

and then there’s something

called Love

to inspire fests

to re-ignite the spark

which united us

at life’s onset.