A walk to my birthplace Day 50 (142 Km covered so far)

Today as I walked my thoughts drifted to some random memories about my sister.

I have a sister who is elder by 6 years. I can’t exactly say that we grew together because she was someone I always looked up to and knew that she will always take care of me. Well, I always needed someone to defend me due to whatever mischief I played almost every day. My sister always used to fight my case and that delicate little girl used to be a terrific advocate!

I used to exploit her benevolence to the full. I still remember, once I had a slight injury to my finger at the beginning of the academic year. So my sister wrote the science journal for me. Her handwriting, unlike mine, is outstanding. I told her that if I now write the journal, teacher will detect the difference and that would be a trouble. She smiled and wrote my journal for the rest of the year!! My mother told her not to fall for such obvious tricks but she was ok…..

Of course there was a little fee to be paid for such cover. I used to be the errand boy not only for her but also for her friends. In those days when telephone was a luxury, I used to go from one place to other exchanging the messages she and 3 of her best friends wrote to each other. Other duties included standing in the Q for movie tickets, escort them from a late night movie etc but I was fine ….

Just the last week, I was in Mumbai for an important meeting and stayed at her place the night before. Next day morning, I sat up chatting with her on the breakfast table till she reminded me of the time. I panicked – I had to attend an important quarterly review meeting. I wanted to quickly iron my clothes and asked her for the iron. She told me to go and take the shower and she promised me to iron my clothes. Without hesitation, I followed the instructions and finally made it on time …

As I ended my day I wondered about the morning incident. I knew the importance of my meeting extremely well. I also knew that I couldn't afford to be late – Did I sit there chatting with her half-knowingly that she will help me to get ready? The answer is YES. Was it fair on my part to do so – the answer is YES again! There are very few people in life who preserve your childhood in their mind. These are anchors of your life who give you immense stability in your ups and down. For them, you always remain a child. If you keep aside logic and modern days norms of correct behavior,  you will understand what exactly I mean!!