Sunday, July 05, 2020

My brother

A couple of days ago Mukul, my brother in law sent me this picture taken by Som his friend. Som took this picture and although I have no memory of this being taken, I do remember Som very clearly. He was very sweet, rather shy and studying Chemistry when I met him. Now, he's a splendid chef judging by his Instagram account but that might just be a hobby of his and he might be a genius scientist somewhere. I haven't talked to him in ages, so if you're reading this Som, please accept my deepest gratitude for having kept this picture with you all these years. You were, and I'm sure still are a sweetheart.

Now let me get back to this image which was definitely not shot in1994 because I met Anshuman and his family in 1999. But yes, it's one of the few pictures of me and Mukul before I married his brother. I'm almost 99 percent sure it was shot somewhere in Borivali and I'm very curious as to what that yellow thing on my right is. I think it's a dustbin. But then why would someone stick a dustbin on a pole at that height. I know it's strange but I'm a little perplexed by it.

The next thing I noticed is that I'm holding on to a plastic bag and it made me wonder what was so precious inside that bag. So naturally I zoomed in and detected the beginnings of the Disney logo. I must have been about 25 years old in this picture and was carrying something from Disney like my life depended on it. My best guess is that it was that illustrated book of the Cindrella animated film. It happens to be my favourite fairy tale. I unashamedly love it despite the fact that I am now 46 years old and ideally should at least have moved on to the "updated" versions they keep spewing out to make the female character appear stronger. Don't get me wrong, I watch all of them but the Disney version still remains to be my favourite.

When I met Mukul he was possibly the most polite person on earth. And then I got to know him better. And then on the way to becoming family he truly cared for me and drove me crazy with his constant teasing. It's a big brotherly thing to do and I just wasn't used to it and once yelled,"Fuck!" at the dining table in the middle of lunch with Mukul and my future father in law. It's the only time I've ever uttered that word in his presence. Why? Because Mukul continued to tease me about something despite several warnings from me delivered to him under my breath. He simply enjoyed riling me up too much and never having had an older brother I was just not used to it and sometimes blew my fuse.

As we grew up together we began to understand each other better and I had the pleasure of having a deeply caring, amazingly talented and loving brother for life. I am always so touched and moved by the way he takes care of the people around him and gives so much more than he can even afford out of sheer love. I have so much love and respect for him and I wish when I'm born again I will be his older sister and bully him to his wits end. That's the dream. 

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