As children we always waited for this festival to arrive, as it brought with it, visits to the market, refrigerators full of ‘mithais’, holiday/holidays (an added bonus, if it fell on a Saturday or a Monday) and meeting so many relatives on a single day. All year long none of us ( we three sisters) felt the need to have a brother. But on this day we wondered who we tie this beautiful thread ‘called Rakhi’ to ??!!
Since childhood, the person who came to our rescue on this day was our father. Every 'Rakhi Morning' we would get ready and he would hold his hand out so we could tie him the Rakhis our aunt's had sent for him and also the ones that were from our side for 'a brother'. On the flip side, celebrating this beautiful day and the bond it represents was not restricted to us having a brother, because we never had one. And why not? After all, our father was the one who protected us all year long. Isn’t why this day is celebrated?
On a parallel platform, we also have four sworn brothers, who have been our brothers since we were babies. They were our neighbors. No sister for them. No brother for us. Hence the start of a relationship between them and us which completes about 25 years this Rakhi. We have hardly been in the same city but the first Rakhis that they tie is ours, even before their own cousins’. This is the bond that I cherish. Not a bond of blood, but the bond of Love.
On a parallel platform, we also have four sworn brothers, who have been our brothers since we were babies. They were our neighbors. No sister for them. No brother for us. Hence the start of a relationship between them and us which completes about 25 years this Rakhi. We have hardly been in the same city but the first Rakhis that they tie is ours, even before their own cousins’. This is the bond that I cherish. Not a bond of blood, but the bond of Love.
With Vrinda’s birth, she became the first baby girl in my maternal family. My sisters already had one boy each. She brought with her a new chapter of ‘Rakshabandhan’, in the next generation. This is her 2nd Rakhi and I have already sent out her letters and Rakhis to all her cousins. What a beautiful feeling of contentment I derive from this.
Here is a basic draft of a letter from her to her brothers :-)
Hope you are doing well and enjoying. I am sending Rakhi for you. Please tie it on the day Rakhi is celebrated.Hope you will like it and enjoy wearing it.
Please convey my regards to all elders and love to all young ones.
Your Little Sister
Vrinda a.k.a. Kuhu
Today she is too young to understand the meaning of this festival, these bonds that it forges, but as she will grow up, she will soon realize its worth and hopefully find immense pleasure in sending them out to her brothers.
This whole process of buying Rakhis , making the parcels and being excited about how her brothers will feel when they tie them on their wrist, really makes me happy and fulfilled as a mother.
The ritual that we followed as children, I am going to start the same for her from this Rakhi. Vrinda will be tying Rakhi to her papa from this year, professing the protection that she seeks from him as a daughter as well as a baby sister :-)
But more than anything else, I would want her to believe in the strength of relations, relations that she seek to build over time with her brothers. Tying a Rakhi is only symbolic, what matters is that she forges such strong bonds with them that go a long way in their lives for all times to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment