Happy Birthday Geethu, I love you too

Today is my sister's birthday. She is in Australia, far far away from home. I called her twice. Once, I called her to wish her and then, I called her again because Adi wants to talk to his "Gee Maa." Her name is Sangeetha and he wanted to call her "amma" coz she and I look alike in many ways but hearing us call her by her nickname 'Geethu', little adi got confused and began to call her "Gee Maa."

Geethu and Adi have a special bond. Praying for me through rainy day pradakshinams in Guruvayoor and Chottanikkara and doing the saptaha reading of Sri Sathcharita, my sister's prayers for Adi even before he was born is something that I can never forget. She would call me every day to ask how I felt and whether I am fine and she was doing that throughout. She and I spent a whole week shopping for the things that Adi would wear once he was born. Every little item was chosen with so much love and care by Geethu. 

When Adi was born, she loved to take care of him whenever he was howling or soiling the diapers. Her world really revolved around Adi.  Even now, she never forgets to call and talk to Adi at least once a week.

Right from the time I was carrying Adi, my sister used to talk to him (to my stomach:D) and used to sing songs to him and constantly make an effort to engage with him. The best part was that he would kick whenever she asked questions, as if he could hear her and understand her. In a way, it used to make me mad because I was the one he was kicking with full force everytime she asked questions...I had this funny feeling that she wanted me to get kicked:) She was crazy about Adi even before he was born and that takes me back to the time, when my sister was born. 

I tell her this very often so I don't mind admitting here - I cried so much when she was born because I desperately wanted a baby brother who would hopefully dote over me and protect me like they showed in most of our movies. A sister - oh no! - that meant I'd have to share my stuff with her but most importantly, my parents' attention would go to the squiggly roaring creature that they said is my sister....can you imagine how badly my world was rocked on that day?

I didnt go to see her on the day she was born because that way, it seemed as if I could shut out her existence. Of course, when she came home, it was a storm because people couldn' t stop adoring her because she was the most adorable baby in our family and very very conscious of it too. She used to command us all and we would do her bidding automatically! I began to seriously plot a way to do away with her.....she knows it too and still teases me about my devious ways.  And as kids, we could never agree on anything and literally fought like cats and dogs, I like to believe that I was more saintly of the two but she was definitely the better behaved one:)

When we grew into adolescence, I don't know but everything changed, especially our relationship. She became my daughter, than my sister. She says I was more like a possessive mother, keeping an eye on the people she talked to, the books she read and stuff. She says fondly that i was an insufferable nag. Her friends say that I was always hanging around her so they were sort of forced to see me as the fence around the plant and I ended up keeping them away from her. Funny, I never realized it then but now I see it could be true. Anyone who hurt my sister would get a bad deal from me and that was a sure thing. The same - vice versa. If anyone hurt me, you could be sure that she would knock the living daylights out of that person. And this remains the case even now. If I believe that some one has hurt my sister, that person has to seriously watch out for me.

Simply put, we became sisters in the real sense of the world. If my world falls apart, I talk first to my sister because I know she won't sit in judgment of me because she knows me better than I know myself. It's the same for her.

I miss my sis. We fight every two minutes about the silliest things but we love each other like crazy too.

Today, she sent me an sms that brought tears to my eyes:

"Thanks so much to you all for calling me several times today...means a lot to me. You are a wonderful sister...i guess I am lucky to have you as my sis...love you lots, Geethu."

Oh, - thats the best part about being sisters - we get all emotional on birthdays and we forget that we nearly hated each other for the first decade of our life - and now we can't bear to be without each other. Voila, c'est la vie!

Happy Birthday, Geethu. I  love you too.