Growing up with five sisters

“Today is far from Childhood,
But up and down the hills,
I held her hand the tighter,         
Which shortened all the miles”

I have a rare distinction of being the only brother amongst five sisters (one elder and four younger) and growing up along with them, I reflect, has been a unique experience which I have thought of sharing.

Living with many sisters inculcated in me an empathy for them because I soon had realized that we can live together only till we are adolescents as one day they would be married off. Being surrounded with sisters propelled me to remain a feminist and any atrocity on women anywhere would upset me.

In my 70 years long life journey, there are hundreds of glorious moments between us siblings, of sharing and caring which cannot be penned in limited words, however I have made an attempt.

The realization had dawned early on me when I was only 10 years old that God has ordained some out of the ordinary role for me in life.The day my youngest sister Deepa was born in 1960, I was playing marbles in a Delhi colony where most of the residents were Punjabi speaking settlers from Pakistan who had migrated after the partition.

Till date I vividly remember the two ladies sitting on a nearby cot and watching us play conversed with the other woman in Punjabi language that ‘ess munde di panjavi  behen hui hai’( the boy who is playing has got today his fifth sister) .

Her tone was such it conveyed to me that some catastrophe has befallen upon me and throwing all the marbles, exasperated I ran towards  the  nearby government hospital where I knew my mother was admitted a night before.

Unfazed, my father had remarked that ‘Luxmi’ has come.

Our parents brought us up with utmost love and care and no special privileges were accorded to me as a son. We all did childish play and games together, took care of each other as our parents were busy trying to give us all a good life.

As we reached adolescence I made myself strong since there was always a lurking  feeling in me of rogue elements as at one stage all my sisters were college going and I felt that it was for me to provide them shield.

In early years, I used to tag along with my elder sister Shobha and used to play all the games the girls would play. She was two classes ahead of me but I used to get excited whenever her new books would come and apart from my own books I would read her books also which continued till her graduation, as a result I was always ahead of others in my class.

I had worked arduously during her marriage in 1971 and the marriage party (barat) had stayed in Ambala for three days.

My bonding with her remained till her unfortunate death in 2017.

Younger to me Archana (now in USA) was my caretaker and would maintain all my knick knacks and would hold wooden spool (Charkhi) for me when I would fly kites and would sit outside the grounds all through the day when I would be playing cricket matches. Few days after our marriage me and wife Sudha spent one month in a PGI Chandigarh ward where Archana was admitted due to some aliment.

Next Kalpana has always been very calm,quiet,happy go lucky and was never demanding.

She is married in Gwalior and I stayed maximum with her after her marriage as I used to go frequently to Gwalior in connection with the property of my in laws there.

Seven years younger to me Rachana, who is in Bikaner used to remain busy with her friends and sisters but maintains deep bonding with me.

The youngest , Deepa got parental affection from us and I intentionally married her at Chandigarh to keep her near Ambala.

Since being an advocate and a senior journalist I was very well connected and she remained unharmed and enjoyed exalted status among her colleagues in a politics ridden organization from where she has now retired as a Senior Bank Manager; befitting response to the two ladies who felt despair at her birth.

The responsibilities of mine and my wife had enormously increased as our parents had died very early when I had just entered thirties. We used to pray to Almighty to give us  enough wealth so that we would be able to discharge our duties towards our sisters and their extended families smoothly.

All through we have stood by them and I hope they have never felt absence of parents.

We enthusiastically participated in the marriages of their children and have had the honour of single handedly performing 11 ‘bhats’ till date, now only the youngest Saket (Rachna’s son) remains unmarried.

I believe it is their profuse good wishes and fulsome feelings for us that we were able to carry out our responsibilities satisfactorily.

And another heartening point is that my wife enjoys complete rapport with them all.

May this bonding continue.