The Unbreakable Bond

"Tring tring! ", the alarm bell rang and I woke with a start. It was five-thirty on a Sunday morning and the sun was just rising from beneath the earth bathed in crimson water spraying orange light all over the sky. "Looks like the sun slept for a little longer today but I can't sleep for more time. It's math exam tomorrow and I have to finish studying. ", I said. I started working out the problems. The first question brought back a memory one which was both life-changing and that reminds me how my thoughts were...very narrow and not willing to explore outside my teensy-weensy house encased within four walls. It reminded me of the day at the mall. I WA S nine and was standing in front of a mirror looking at a younger me wearing a red frock with yellow flowers all over it and yellow buttons to match them. It was a simple frock but it's simplicity carried a grace which made me love it even.

"Mom can I please buy this frock? I love it", I asked. "Ok Riya you can have it. ", came the much-expected answer. Later I went to the kids' section just to see the cute dresses. They all had quotes like, "Mom rocks" and"Daddy's my hero". "Perfect", I said. "Really? That's what you think?", said a girl who was standing next to me. "These T-shirts are missing out on the biggest chunk of our life." "What do you mean?", I asked. But she didn't answer me. She just walked away. Precisely two years and eleven months later I was waiting outside the operation theatre with my dad.

An hour later a nurse came out and said, "Congratulations! It's a baby boy! " I was neither happy nor sad the same feeling I had felt when nine months ago my mom had told me that I would be an elder sister soon. But as I took the subtle and the most beautiful person on earth in my arms I felt a feeling I had never felt before...not when I got full marks in my exams...not when I won a basketball tournament. I felt a bond so strong that even Zeus's lightning bolt couldn't destroy it. I started smiling. The smile that spread from my cheeks to my eyes started on 4th September at 1:02 pm and it hasn't gone from me till now.

It lies deep inside my heart beneath all my fury, melancholy and stress. It is what gives me comfort in the most difficult times. Now I know that the girl was right. Those T-shirts were really missing out on the biggest chunk of out life...OUR SIBLINGS...