Bookaholic gets a toy...

Do you love babies? Don't we all? From Enid Blyton to Mills and boon, I did not realize when I grew up. I am still a child at heart and we should all be as I believe that is what keeps you going. Well, I grew up a little the day I saw my younger brother lying beside my mother, he was just 2 days old. I was elated as I had someone whom I could call "my brother". I already had a younger sister but somehow I had this idea of a perfect family engraved in my mind where a brother was also necessary to complete my not so complete family. Leaving aside this patriarchy, lets move on to my baby brother who told me 18 days ago that I did not mention him in my article therefore Shivi, this entire article is for you.

The first time I saw him I could not believe that someone could be so small as in movies kids were never this small when they were born. I held him in my arms and the warmth that surrounded my heart at that time, never left me. I had this maternal instinct to protect and provide for him in every way possible. When he was born we were getting our house renovated so he had to be sent to my maternal grandmother's and my paternal aunt's house. I stayed with my father while my mother, sister and my baby brother went away till the renovation was done. He spent more time with my younger sister and naturally became more close to her and still wants her around at each and every stage of his life. I tried my best to inculcate the habit of reading in him but to no avail, then I realized that these things can never be forced. As time passed my sister and I had to move out of Shimla for further studies, every time we used to leave for college it broke my heart into pieces to see him hiding behind my mother and crying, asking us to stay for a day more. Slowly and steadily he got used to it but still I used to cry every time I left for college. He used to jump on me every time I reached home, I never had the heart to scold him and he knew that and came running to my sister or me every time he was being punished. As he grew up we understood he was more inclined towards cricket and somehow had ample amount of knowledge about it, this made us proud and want to fight our parents to allow him to train in a proper academy. Now that he is a teenager, he has his tantrums but we know that we hold a special place in his heart which can never be replaced by someone else. He has a superpower, even though he is just 15 years old he knows the difference between wrong and right, which is a scarcity in today's world.

From a small chubby baby to a handsome boy, with him I grew up to be the person I am today. I still see him as the baby that I held in my arms when I saw him for the very first time and it makes me wonder how my mother must feel now that we are all grown up and married. Does she want to turn back time so that she could relive the days when we were just kids? Does it make her anxious to see my baby brother growing up so fast and getting prepared to go outside Shimla? All these things make me anxious at times but this is how the world moves and will go on moving.

See you all next week!!!! XOXO