Bro

I haven’t seen him grow up for the first 5 years of his life. After a weekend with him, I realized how much he had grown up. Infact we siblings have been sharing a roof for some 20+ years, although we wanted to move out. It all had to start with me. 3 months ago I moved out and now it’s his turn.

This weekend was unbearable, as I had to bear in mind he will be moving out into a different city soon. There were tears fighting to come out. But then it would be too feminine to do so. I remember the decade old marriage video, when he was small as a cat and ran around creating mayhem. I wonder if the cassette would still function. I would someday fetch it from the attic.

He was better than me in every area- passion, character, academics. So when Dad asked me to advise him, I chose not to. I was not worth for it. I know it’s going to be difficult for him to adjust to the truth that he didn’t end up in the field he loved. But then the hard truth about life is we never end up being what we want to be. No one is too lucky or unlucky. It’s good that we finish up our unlucky part early in life.

More than me, it’s going to be our parents who are going to miss you. They are seeing their kids going away to the big wide world to make out a living. May be they will start feeling old and lonely. But then that’s life. We never were the perfect family. They had to struggle a lot to grow three kids with huge appetite. Like a majority of Kerala family of the ‘80s they migrated to the deserts to make a living out of hot desert. Thankfully, we kids didn’t have to struggle much.

The last day when he was talking about a girl he met, I was stunned on how quickly had he matured into adulthood. The only advice would be ‘Bro, it’s a big bad, mad world. So take care’

From now on all the fights and shouting would be nothing but a sweet memory.