Our First Friends

Siblings, regardless of the fights, screams, shouts, abuses, shutting doors, everything- what ties them

together is their eternal, pure and innocent love.

I’ve grown up with my sibling, and I’ve seen it all-

the way he used to take pride in being elder to me, telling me that he knows things better, the way
he fooled me uncountable times and how I used to cry after that, the way I got his clothes to wear,
those loose T-shirts, those boyish pants and how comfortable they were, the way whatever little
knowledge he had regarding the school subjects, he used to teach me, the way we’ve both
complained and told things about each other to our parents and how we’ve hidden our talks and
kept them warm and safe, the way we’ve fought over the TV remote and the way we’ve planned
timings of our shows but were never able to obey it, the way we’ve been jealous of each other for
getting things that one of us did not and how we’ve been satisfied and content deep in knowing
what we deserve, the way we’ve splashed water on each other or switched off the fan to wake the
other up and the way we’ve also ensured that no one disturbs the other’s sleep after hours of
staying awake, the way we’ve hit each other and thrown things and broken materials and ran after
each other to kill, and the way we’ve hugged after silences and cold wars finally being over- all these,

and a million other things, yet they can’t describe what we share.

I think everyone reading this would relate to it, to the fights that happen and the love that is still

shared. Today, being busy in the daily chores of life, with hectic schedules and phone calls and
emergencies, we run and catch up with the world, with the endless race, and somewhere in
between, we leave that child behind. Just like we all have already. But, look closely, we all still have

that child in us, peeking in the corner of our heart, with questioning, mischievous playful eyes,
waiting to play and roll in sand and fight again, be back again, doing nothing but sitting on the
rooftop with his sibling, and talking about anything and everything.

"sibling mine, I recall how once we battled

a battle so wild that mother needed to fend off us

from one another's effect, for multi week in a row,

rest in various rooms, don't play with one another

no communication, no oppression, rules were made

and afterward one night, when the city was snoozing

with harmony in its veins, in the midst of plashing patter of unfaltering precipitation,

you came slithering under my bed, woke me up,

with a paper pontoon in your grasp.

What's more, we cruised, and we cruised every one of our contentions and contrasts

with no come up short.

Today, sitting 2000 kilometers away, with dead spirits strolling by

In a four walled glass office, I watch foreboding shadows,

Of coming rainstorm and first downpour,

Sibling mine, come, sail a pontoon like we used to,

In a restricted grimy path, will you?

With me, indeed. "