The tricycle

A black and white pic. A tricycle. Two little sisters starting their journey of life..

....these vivid images flashed across my eyes when someone asked me to talk about my childhood memories. It was a newspaper reporter whose news peg was women of Jharkhand working in the social sector. For moment all I could think of was this pic and then one after the other images flashed across my eyes like they do in our very own "sabse tez" news channels! Me going to school wearing my grey uniform, sis and me enjoying nani's delicacies, my mommy making "pua" for me, sis's birthday cake, grand ma's jam, grand pa's lectures and the hustle bustle of a joint family.

Coming back to the picture (I wish I could put it up here but sadly I dont have a copy of it). This was taken probably when I was not more than 1.5 years old n my elder sis 2.5 years old. We were like inseparable twins wearing similar clothes most of the times. Sis was the "driver" while i was seated comfortably at the back probably after a "hearty" meal as I looked very stuffed :))

Sis was always the smarter and mature one and me the good and the funny girl:) Graduating from black & white pics to colored ones we bonded more and more though nature wise we were always poles apart. I remember going to "East & West" our montessari school where I had beaten up a boy as he had "harrassed" sis by eating her tiffin! Being a "mamma's baby" I used to start wailing "mummyyy mummmmyy"from the staircase itself once I was back from school while sis used to look at me annoyed! Strangely I can recollect that sis had started going to school (I was only 2 at that time) and I used to miss her like crazy at home(...dont know if anyone knows this but I used to even cry till she was back)! Then when I started going to school, this cry baby used to cry for momma :))

As we grew up our outlook to the world took its own shape with the circumstances and choices that we made. Slowly our world changed.....she went out to pursue her dreams while I stayed back waiting for my dreams to fall in place..Guess that was the first error I made in life. She was always there to tell me that I should rethink my decisions. I will not dwell in to the plus and minus of our decisions on this platform but there is one lesson she always tried to teach me - Assert yourself and always remember that it is YOU who is the most important.

Today we are lakhs of miles away and we have our own lives but the connection remains. I am a mother now but still feel like a baby when I talk to her with all the motherly advice coming from the other side of the phone line :)

.....there is another person whom I met later in life & like you she is also far away today. However we are far closer to each other than with any of the people who surround us all day..God really has an amazing way of telling us that he is there!