They Grow Up!

There have been so many times when my mom and my elder sister have treated me like a kid. I often have ended up telling them they could relax. I am no more a kid. I mean at almost 27 I am past my quarter life crisis! At least midway through! But then they never cease to care. Single explanation – “You are still the kid for us”.

While often that would stop my argument I was never really convinced on why people just can’t let me be the grown up… until last week. Yeah that’s when I ended up behaving like my elder sister and my mom. And this time in my place was my younger sister.Nine years younger to me, Maina (literally means baby) as we call her has been our baby. I can’t forget that I held her tiny hand and cute fingers right on the day of her birth. She was an angel then. It’s another matter of fact that she grew up to be devil reincarnated… but you really can’t give up on your sister for that. Oh how I loved to hate her because of all the things she did or did not do. She used to complain to my mom about me and I used to get the thrashing… she never read the books we have in our house library and neither did she bother to brush up her tables. But she has always been someone who would take care of me too whenever I am back home. And I know she sheds her silent tear when I leave after my vacation. Siblings… you love and hate and then love! I remember how I hated my elder sister and loved her as much… for various reasons, all beyond selfish motives of life.

The other day I called Maina on her mobile. Kids these days carry mobile phones… and I shall talk about mobile phones on another post. I called Maina as Ma was not receiving my call. And I get to know she is a parlour for a hair cut. I ask her where’s Ma get to know she is in office and Maina is alone in the parlour which is some 3 kilometers away from home. “Maina... you alone! How did you come so far alone?” I almost freaked out. And she coolly replies “Arre.. I can come alone. I am not a kid!” she had just completed her 10+2 exams the day before and if things go well she will be in college in a couple of months.  I was in Bangalore for my college. And since I have been out of home for long I had often told Ma that we need to let Maina do things alone so that she can match up to the kids in Mumbai who start working at 17! But on this day I was behaving exactly like my mother who… well frankly my mom is far more hyper. I remember a day, during a vacation that was spending in Guwahati, I reached home late – 9.30pm is late in Guwahati. I had not informed Ma that I would be late. And as I entered my lane I was found my mother driving out to the police station to report her missing son! (I was 21 then) Just in time…!

Flash forward to this day… I realized Maina is growing up. And yes she will need her pocket money too. We in small towns don’t really have the concept of pocket money. My father used to give me Rs 5 for the day which included traveling expenses of Rs 4 ever day to school. The money increased to Rs 10 when I was doing my 11^th and 12^th. But now that my father is not longer with us and Maina is growing up… I should be giving her something to spend per month. I tell her I will send her some money every month so that she can buy stuff she liked. “Rs 1000 would do,” pats comes her reply even while I was considering if Rs 250 would do or should I give Rs 500. Kids do grow up… and no matter how much you get worked up, their growing up actually makes you smile… and older!