Rakhi

In this day and age, I find some customs really silly. One of them occurs on the festival day of Raksha Bandhan. Sisters tie a Rakhi on their brother's wrist, do tika, give a dry coconut and the brothers give money/gift and promise to protect them in return... The main good this festival does, is that it gives an opportunity to meet up with family members and relatives. I would usually not bother with the useless ceremony, but I live in family of strong beliefs and so I cannot hurt their feelings.

I don't have any real brother of my own, but I have 4 cousins - 2 born to my dad's younger brother, and 2 born to my mom's 2 brothers. There is also the little boy of a family we met in Mauritius and are close to. They share our ancestral surname - Agarwal, and thus, felt that we are all one family. Mohit, the boy wanted Didi and I to tie Rakhi on him, so we have been sending Rakhies by post.

This year, only he and my youngest cousin were available. The other 3 were out of Delhi. This youngest cousin, Krishna, is a 5-year old bunch of naughtiness which drives me insane. He never listens and always does the opposite of what you tell him to do. I got toy rakhies for him this year, ie, it was a ribbon with small toys stuck on it. Of course, they were torn out the minute they were tied! When he went to the market with Mamu (my uncle, his dad), we girls had loads of fun racing the cars.

We went to a new part of Delhi to meet the other 'brother'. I hadn't met them in a long time and the kids are so grown up that I felt very old! Ashi was a few months old when I first saw her and played with her! and Mohit was 4-5 years old. Time flies so fast, and meeting them made me realise how long ago it was when I lived in Mauritius.

When coming back home, a really embarrassing thing happened! A guy was sitting on a seat reserved for ladies. I challenged my sister to ask him to vacate the seat. She said, forget it, poor brother, today let him enjoy the seat. And I said, on the other hand, at least on this day, the brothers should be vacating seats for their sisters. And maybe I spoke too loudly, for the guy sitting with his mom stood up shamefaced. I think I blushed a very deep-red because I was just saying in general and the look on his face was as if I had directed my words at him alone!

Later that night, my sister's 'brother' treated us to dinner at the Air Warrior's Club at the Air Force base in Delhi. It was just like entering Camp Schwab in Okinawa for me. Sarthak's dad is in the Indian Air Force, so he has a 'base pass' :) ...good times..