Affections Disguised

I was just looking at an old photo I had with me and my mind went wandering all over the infinite memories stored, especially the ones with one special guy who was always around me. My Little Brother! (Well, hez not little anymore but I’d like to think so always). So here’s down memory lane.

22^nd January 1987 this soul came into being on earth. He is four years and a half younger than I am. He troubled my mom with his bad appetite for food but would drink close to 2 and a half glasses of Bournvita and jump up with infinite energy like a wound up spring.

I had a cupboard full of toys all neatly arranged and taken care of, just after a couple of years of his life and it reduced to a rack of toys and a cardboard box of ruins of his staged war among all my toys. I hated him for that and my mom would pacify me “You’re a grown up girl you don’t play with those toys anymore”.

He was so mischievous he climbed up a chair and swung open the window and THUDDD! It hit right on my grandmom’s face who was watering plants outside in the garden and poor soul she lost her two front teeth. To this date we all pull his leg about it…

My dad has this fancy of recording kid’s voices, he had a tape of my voice as a kid and wanted to record my brother’s too…Boy! Was he giving us a tough time…. My dad would say “Say, A for apple” he would be like “uhh hoooo!” and run all around the room, I would then go up to him and say in his ears “Hey say A for apple otherwise daddy will scold u” and then he said “A for apple” then my dad continued “B for ball!”. He then said “B for ..B for…B for” I tried prompting from behind and he gave me a sly smile and said “ B for Bamrakatta (don’t ask me what it is or what it means, it was his own crazy vocabulary) he haaaaaaaaaa ha ah” and run away.

There is something I’ll definitely avenge him for someday. I had this cute little pink teddy my dad got for me from Bombay! I used to hold him while I sleep. In a little fight we had he snatched it from me and ran all around the garden and I was trying to catch him. He held is above his head as though he was taller than me. Once he realized it would be easy for me to reach…He flung it over on the sunshade. My dad told me he would get a ladder the next day and rescue teddy for me. Damn! It had to rain that night and all I got back was something looking like a Black Voodoo doll! Grrrrrr!

He had some fascination for “One Rupee”. He once told my dad, “Daddy lets get a car!” My dad would say “Its too expensive ra!” He would innocently reply “No daddy its only one rupee”. My dad laughed and asked “Only one rupee??” and he would spread his hands around and say, “Whole world is one rupee! Everything is one rupee!!” and my grandma would come around and tell my dad “Your son is preparing himself to buy the whole world”.

He was somewhat a kid-electrician, my mum had to make sure to hide all possible electric and electronic goods. He ripped a tape recorder into parts proclaiming that he is repairing it and reduced an old clock into nuts, bolts, needles and wheels. Pulled out the tape from cassettes and stretched it from one end of the living to the other.

Michael Jackson was his demigod and he would throw himself into what I recognized as synchronized fits! He always had a clapping audience so he never really cared what I thought of it.

He was such an impressionable kid. After watching a superman cartoon he ran to the room pulled out a towel tied it around his neck and ran all around the house. He ran up the stairs to the terrace. My mum got so scared if he would attempt to jump off the parapet but all he need was more space run around and wind for his towel to fly.

He had some technique of pinching with his knuckles and he would try it on my hand and challenge me to do the same. OOOuch! It hurt sooo much. I would take up the challenge and he would laugh seeing me not able to do it and then I would stealthily use my nails to hurt him and it would end up in big time bash up time! Who was I kidding… That guy had the strength of the Gods!

I always enjoyed teasing him. He was out of his bath and my mom had gone to attend the door bell. He opened the cupboard in an attempt to pick his own t-shirt and ended up pulling out my red frock with white spots. He just wore it on for fun and spun round and round holding up the flare of the skirt. I found it so funny that I rolled over the floor and laughed. He was so offended that he ended up wrestling with me and my mom comes back to witness it and says “Ohh Nooooooooo Not again!!!”

He always has absolute determination about what he loves to do. His first bike was his life. Nobody taught him how to ride a bike, he came back home with a lot of bruises but it was amazing to see how slowly he himself removed the supports of his bike and ride without holding the handlebars!

We grew up! I started going to college and he was in high school. He became less mischievous, more responsible and mature. But that’s not stopping us fight he he! Remote Fight was everyday fight!!!!! The only time we used to agree on channels was 8pm…Anything but Sun News! But the ruler of the remote at that time was DAD!!!

He automatically by default hated all my celebrity crushes. “Whats that fatso Madhavan got…what do you girls see in him?” and I would say “Don’t be jealous, He’s got a cute smile”. He would sneer back “Jealous me??? I don’t even want to have a smile close to his”

Poor guy was always tired of attending my phone calls. I would come back home after a class or outing and ask, “Did anyone call?” and he would irritably say “Yeh Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan called to ask for appointments with you!”. I’d shout back “Don’t kid…tell me its important”. He would snigger and say “Who else Kadalai Mama and Lipstick Maami (his nick names for my friends, he hated them all too) Whats so important about them???”

I could go on and on and maybe write a book… It’s always been fun to have him around. I’ve seen that as people grow up into adults they fight with their siblings over issues like property, prestige etc etc. Even though we’ve fought over so many things we’ve always come around it because they were all soo trivial… Hey bro! I promise that I’ll never let things go soo far that it would lead to misunderstandings with permanent damages like I see all around the world, because my life with you means a lot. I want to add a whole lot to my already existing sweet memories, as I grow old :). Waiting to see you after a year and a half in December :)

That unspoken love around fights and hidden possessiveness around arguments – are "Affections Disguised" – too proud to be expressed.