It has been almost two months since my last post here. I had gotten a
little busy with work and preferred movies and sleep on weekends to writing up
something for the blog. I am guilty and I apologize. I finally found something
to write about after a long time.
Let me first give you a background of what this blog is going to be
about.
First off, it is a VERY LENGTHY blog. So readers are advised to step
away from the computer, do a few stretching exercise and then come back to
finish reading.
My younger sister recently graduated from college, she today has a
Bachelor of Technology in I.T, of which I am extremely proud of. She also
bagged a job with TCS, the Indian IT service consulting behemoth, via her
campus-recruitment program. She is set to join the company in three days time
and as an older brother, I had some words of advice for her before she left to
start this amazing new phase of her life. This blog is an open letter from an
older brother.
The blog hasn't been proofread yet. So kindly ignore the grammatical errors...
 |
| our Angel :) |
My dearest baby-sister,
They say that the human mind can retain a few memories from a person’s
childhood with amazing clarity. For me, the day you were born is one of those
memories. I still remember every single detail of the time when Shruti and I
were first brought in to say hello to mom, after she was okayed to be visited
by friends and family. We did not get to see you since you were too tiny and
were kept away from everyone except the nurse. But, we were very well aware
that we had a baby sister now, someone actually younger than us, who had just
come into the world, and were as excited as a cat with a ball of yarn would be.
Two decades have gone by and today you have turned into this smart and
fantastic young woman that I am super-duper-proud of. You graduated recently
from college and are now ready to step out of our family’s wings into the
big-bad-world out there.
Being your older brother, I am probably as scared as mom is today to be
letting go of your hand. I’ve always seen you more than a sister. You are to
me, like my own kid, if I ever had one. And I will always love you like one.
As you get ready to leave the house and start your own life, please
take a few moments out of your life to read this letter where a brother wants
to share some advice and caution you against what is out there. This might be really
boring to you all who are so used to having super-short conversations via
texting or tweeting (I know you don’t use twitter…but it was general mockery at
your whole age-group) , but please do finish reading the whole letter.
Remember, most of the things I will say here- I KNOW that you already do and
safeguard yourself against. But I will write them down anyway.
So here goes,
-sweetheart, if you think you have seen
your share of ups and downs in life so far, you are wrong. Life will continue
to shoot arrows at you, maybe even bigger and sharper ones as you grow. You
will have to deflect them, maybe even take a few hits, but heal from the wounds
and move on. Life isn’t easy, it never was.
-Do not ever forget your family
and friends. Respect everyone who have helped you out during your earlier
problems. Stay in touch with them. Your family would be calling you every other
day for the next month or so, to see how you are doing. The frequency of the
calls might come down to one call per week. But we WILL keep calling. It might
become a little irritating, but trust me when I say this, we will NEVER have
heard enough from you. Also. Take time out of your life to actually make a
phone-call to good friends on their
birthday to wish them. Sure, you can wish them on facebook, but a personal wish
face-to-face or over the phone goes a long way in cementing a relationship.
-You will start earning now, for
the first time in your life. It is a truly fantastic and euphoric feeling. This
may sound clichéd but you will soon learn that ‘ With great power, comes great
responsibilities’ which means, with the power of earning money, you will also
have the added responsibility of managing your money and how to spend it. You
will not be taught this in school or the college, but life will be the teacher
for this. Spend carefully and save wisely my dear sis.
-You are moving to a new city
where you will undoubtedly meet new people and make new friends. You will want
to go out to party on some weekends when and if work pressure permits you. That
is completely fine. Life after all needs some fun in it. If you happen to go to
a pub, do NOT accept a drink from a stranger (Especially men). Actually, let me
rephrase that: do not accept drinks from ANY MAN. Have your drink made on your
own, or accept it only if it is ordered and made in front of you. You have no
idea about the evil-creeps that lie out there waiting with their fangs open.
Being an older brother, I will ALWAYS feel insecure about your safety. And I
hope you don’t mind that.
-Trusting people will be an
issue. Be very picky when it comes to choosing your friends and even more
careful when it comes to choosing who to include in your ‘circle of trust’. It
may even mean you will have a few lesser friends than the most popular girl in
the group, but trust me: you will be much safer this way.
I think I will wrap up my letter
with that point and another small paragraph about how much I love you.
I have and will always continue
to cherish the times we spent growing up together. I will continue to regret
all those times when I hit you because you were getting on my nerves as a pesky
7 year old. I will always love you more than any or all of your friends ever
can or will ever do(all put together). I will continue to call you ‘beta’ every
single time we speak on the phone. I will continue to invent quirky ways to
greet you when we speak on video-chat. I will continue to look-forward to every
single time I call you and you greet me with your chirpy ‘hi BHAI!’. I will
continue to include your happiness and
safety as the first thing I ask of God everytime I pray.
You my dear lovely young sister,
will NEVER EVER be a grown-up for me. You will always be my baby-sister. The
day you bagged the job was one of the proudest days of my life. I will be proud
of you no matter what you do, I am proud of you for just being my sister. Remember
this Shillu, if a day ever comes (May it never come), that the whole world has turned against you, you can be
assured that there will be one person who will ALWAYS be on your side…and that
will be this older brother of yours.
With all the love I have,
Bhai.
