Friday, March 03, 2006

Minus one

When a sister got married recently, her absence left a blankness few of us were familiar with. It felt like a loss, not the victory we were used to in this family of males. People always came, no one ever left. It felt generous. When families are large and close, there is warmth and variety and giving. It is a club to which you have gained admission, and we feel large-hearted for accepting without judgment (mostly). But how can this feeling be extended to loss? Now, like a new word that you suddenly notice everywhere, there are sisters all around, only a few years away from leaving. There will be gains as well, for a generation of boys are becoming men, but these defeats are not easy to forget. We are suddenly minus one, and the realignment of family takes a long time – time we want nothing to do with, time we don’t want to know of. This endearing bunch of embarrassing nicknames will be elsewhere, and change will affect them in more ways than just by name. These walking targets will move out of range, leaving their brothers lost and pining for them.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

awesome prose pal.....is it something that rings a bell close to home ??

Akira said...

Rahul,

Very well written!

I can understand....Goodbyes (wedding, relocating, etc) are probably the only situations where happiness and sadness co-exist....

Rahul Bhatia said...

It's probably a little close to home, yes. And apologies for inflicting that last line - it's so excessively sugary that I nearly had a heart attack upon reading it afresh today.

Kusum Rohra said...

hhmm indeed very nicely written.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry. I totally disagree with mumbaigirl. I love reading your blog because of the calm, wry observations. So after not finding anything for days, I get to read this very 'bhaiyya more rakhi ke bandhan ko nibhana' type stuff. You can forgive mush in an old 40s ashok kumar black and white flick, but not here. looking forward to more exciting stuff! how about some more of that travelling stuff?
- readerwhoexpectstheworld