People Case

When my brothers went to college and my twin sisters got admitted to some prestigious boarding school, I thought that I would be the unconquered prince of our home, but sadly, that feeling lasted only for one day when I realised that how empty our house felt without those monsters ravaging everything that came in their way and those dragons disguised as pretty damsels which would spit fires of fury whenever necessary, especially when they both wanted the same thing.

I started to miss those silly talks, pranksters, youthful arguments and cheerful giggles with those monsters and dragons, when they were around. I had never given much thought to ‘how I would spend my days in their absence,’ but I wish I had! Being a little unsociable, I had to take great pains to adjust to this sudden lamentable change, when their spirits soared, for bright careers awaited them. My eldest brother, Dipankar had already been studying in a college, but the year Deep, Meenakshi and Manisha had to go, I felt as if they had taken that spirit, those giggles and arguments with them, which would swirl and thrive in the veranda of our home when we were all together, and eventually I felt as if it had split, for they, themselves were parting, except Meenakshi and Manisha. No matter how dry the summer days would be, we would be shielded from every worry, Deep used to crack those stomach-aching jokes on my sisters, which used to drive us all crazy, and when the ice-cream vendor would ring the bell, we would finally get rid of Dipankar flaunting of his girlfriends, and would give that puppy look to Dipankar to persuade him to buy ice-cream sticks for us, He had to, he was the eldest, and since he was the only one who studied in college, papa had been giving pretty handsome pocket-money to him, and we thought that it was fair enough to strain our generous brother’s purse during his Summer breaks.

I was the youngest; I hardly felt the need to socialise with friends when all my spirited brothers and giggly sisters were there to accompany this black sheep. Any repetitious day’s worries would waft away from my mind when we all used to sit together in the calm, silent evenings. Watching the blue, tranquil sky with my siblings was something I adore to this very day. Quietly the evening would pass away, cuckoo serenading some long forgotten tunes in the lap of a hostile soaring tree, which would make you take a deep breath and close your eyes to feel the very essence of nature, which would persuade to appreciate life, make you hum along with the innocent bird, and eventually you would find yourself absorbed in the heated discussion between your feisty brothers. Those are the days you would adore when they would, at some point, go away from you. The song bird did sing even when they were not there, but I didn’t feel that spiritual in their absence.

My brothers went to college, and both my sisters to some cruel boarding school.

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