Sisters - beautiful gift of God.

“…A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life”

How true he is the one who quoted this... I always wanted to have a sister since my childhood – that doesn’t mean I do not have a sibling. I have got a younger brother and he is good to me, but sisters are something special. You see if someone asks you which is sweeter among sugar and honey. It is difficult to answer isn’t it… It’s the same with brothers and sisters. They have their own sweetness.

My dad had a sister - Udayakka. She was the youngest of all in our house until I was born. I took her position and eventually, I had got loads of love from all my family members. She wasn’t jealous about that at all as my mom recalls; she used to take care of me a lot. I don’t remember most of the things of my early childhood, but yeah I loved her company. She was so sweet and caring. When I had first joined school i.e. for kinder garden (we call it balavadi) for the first one month, Udayakka used to come with me and she used to be there in that class the whole day. Days passed and I think I was in 2nd Standard when she got married. I was sad as she was going away from me. I didn’t like that. But she had to go. However, I used to spend all my summer vacations in her new house (husband’s place) in Gangolli. Those days were quiet wonderful. They had joint family with over 15 members together, in which 5 of them were of about same age as of mine. They were living in quiet a big house than ours with a big garden in front with many trees and a good play area too. I was a little boy then and probably, I liked the place than the fact that I was going to meet my sister.

But there was one day in a year, for which I always waited for her arrival (it wasn’t in between my summer vacation). And that was Rakhi day. Every year, she used to come to our home with that small saffron rakhi for my dad, uncle and of course for me too. It wasn’t that colorful as my other friends used to get from their sisters. But, it was very special for me.

Our family was cursed with Astama disease. Through my grandma, it came to all her children. My dad had little problems with it and thankfully, I did not get it by birth. But my uncle and Udayakka had the worst of it. I was in 6th standard and my upanayana was fixed, which was about one month later that day. I knew Udayakka was excited, same as how I was about it. We have a ritual in upanayana where sisters have some role to play. That night my dad came back home very early at about 8PM after closing the shop. It was quiet unusual as they never came before 10’o clock. He said Udayakka is very serious and asked everyone to go to place. Probably I wasn’t that matured that time as to guess if anything wrong in his tone. I just sat in the car hoping to meet her and prayed for her good health. We reached there at about 11. And then… That horrifying scene is still alive in my eyes.

We stepped inside a crowded house where everyone weeping in the hall. My heart started beating very fast and then almost stopped when I saw her, my Udayakka lying in the middle of hall, closing her eyes, with that charming smile same as ever. My grandma broke down. For the first time in my life, I experienced the pain of losing someone so beloved. I never saw her with a sad face and even that day she left me, she left us all and she left the world with the same smiling face that I had seen her with all the time. I cried a lot, I was helpless and broken. She did not open her eyes. She did not respond. I lost my sister… God took her away…