Sisterly Love

By now, you know that I belong to a huge group of siblings. To be precise, seven sisters and five brothers. Of them, the eldest sister is my own and others are cousins. Growing up in a joint family has its pros and cons. There are grannies, uncles and aunts, cousins and others. The list keeps getting bigger when the children get married and there are sisters-in-laws, brothers-in-laws plus nephews and nieces.

People who have siblings are no stranger to the concept of sibling rivalries. Even I have faced it, but certainly in a good way. Having about three cousins of same age made us triplets of sorts in the eyes of the elders and having other three cousins who are not very young than me, made me feel like a pseudo elder sister types. Like they will address me as elder sister or Didi but we never behaved like elder and young cousins to each other. But when it came to my elder sister, it was more like a mother-daughter relationship than actual sister kind relationship.

Didi, as I address her, is no less a parent for me. Right from childhood, we’ve been taught that any elder in the family should be given equal respect as you would give to your parents. Didi has always been special. And more out of respect and love, I feel like a small kid in front of her. We don’t fight over clothes or wardrobe spaces, or who gets how much share in the food. We share a unique bonding where we don’t need to tell how special we are for each other. Being a younger sister to her, Didi has always been protective about me; be it when it came to saving me from ma’s scolding, holding hands till the time she dropped me to school or advising me which course to take up for studies. I have even been scolded for not being a cleanliness freak, not finishing food on time or feeling depressed about situations that were beyond my control. If you have parents to bring you up, God gifts you elder sister for being the emotional shield that you need to survive.

There are both advantages and disadvantages of having an elder sister. The advantages are that you are showered with the exact gifts you wish for, the clothes that eye for a long time, the books that you want to read and so on. The only disadvantage is that you are never considered a grown up even to her. Take for instance, when I wasn’t keeping well, she assigned my nephew the job of making me finish my food because he is the only person on earth who can be successful in a single attempt or making both of us share chocolates like siblings (my nephew and me!).

The equation between sisters differ depending on the comfort level, and for us, it’s more about love and respect for each other.

I am linking this post to A to Z Challenge #Day 19 for alphabet S.