1 Dear Diary

31/12/2017

22:16

Sunday

Dear diary,

A fine day today was. I woke up to my daughter's kisses and cuddles. It immediately made me understand that today is Sunday. Rini and I kissed and hugged for long time when the creak of the door was heard and Rini jumped to drape her fingers around my eyes, covering them. Silly girl! What's the use of covering the eyes when I already know what would be coming next. After all it has been happening for a really long time now, maybe 10 or 11 years? My trail of thoughts was soon interrupted when the beautiful aroma of strong coffee wafted into my nose. Ah! Niloy's coffee is really something.

Sunday called for another routine and that was a "Holiday special menu" for lunch. The father and daughter duo debated on it for a long time while assessing every dish by the frequency of eating it, how much it is liked, what are its nutritional values and many more. Finally they could come into a consensus after bantering for nearly thirty minutes. [1] Mutton kasa would be cooked as mutton was more or less liked by everyone, easy to cook as it is pressure cooked, and not very frequently eaten though it's red meat and has quite a bit of calories.

Once decided, I left for the market leaving the two of them who were once again engaged in a new debate, an intellectual one this time- politics. Funny right? The girl who used to tell that she would marry her own father because she was told that she should marry the man she loves the most is now interested in politics. Naturally, that was what a girl of seventeen years would do.

I met Sheena on the way to the market. She was again full of complaints about her elder son Sayan and praises for the younger one, Shubham. She was like, "Oh Riya, I am so very done. The elder kid has grown up to be such a cruel person, that he can't even tolerate his own little brother. Always he will try to snatch away everything from the small one according to his own wish. And Shonu (aka Shubham) is dying everyday due to his brother's torture."

As her story went on, I got to know about the latest reason for squabble. Shubham wanted to play games on his brother's laptop on which the latter had been preparing his school project. On facing resistance, the younger sibling started beating up the older one to which the elder reacted by merely blocking his blows. But when both of them were brought to the court of justice (home) -the kitchen, the judge (Sheena) stood up for Shubham and punished Sayan.

Weird huh? Both children are born from the same mother. But one is clearly pampered and the other neglected.

But it is clearly not the first or the only case I have witnessed this closely. There was a student of mine. He had a younger brother.

The elder brother always complained that his mother doesn't understand him. It was due to unlimited affection to the younger and none for the elder. The boy always loved his brother so much when he was at school and always looked after him. But as they grew up, this discrimination among the brothers started affecting their relationship. But the boy's love for the brother was so deep, he still didn't want to part ways with him. He kept on urging to stay together in the same house and stand beside each other in good and bad times. But his brother kept on expressing his dissatisfactions. Their mother too, just like before never cared about the elder son's interests and kept on favouring the younger son.

What happened next was inevitable. The boy's feelings towards his brother started changing and he was clearly envious of him. The brothers felt the distance between them get larger every day until they were enemies. At last the boy ended up flying abroad, far away from his home, where he had spent his childhood, far away from the mother whom he loved but never had got the love back. He had met me once before leaving. It is then he had told me, "Ma'am, sometimes I feel like my brother shouldn't have been born and I curse him. Sometimes I just feel like hating my mother. But at the end, I can't bring myself to hate them and all I feel is nothingness. It's just a void; a void that can't be filled nor replaced".

Compatibility, harmony and brotherhood should undoubtedly be preached and followed. But shouldn't these be the responsibilities of both the siblings and not just one of them? Parents often discriminate against one of the two siblings for several inexplicable reasons which results to severe scarring of the neglected child and pushes him to his breaking point. Shouldn't parents be equally loving and strict towards both their children and benefit or reprimand their children impartially?

Tomorrow, it's a new day, a new year. But can we change anything in this new year? Can we be neutral towards everybody while passing judgements and not consider personal gains and losses? Can we stop relentlessly hurting others and their feelings in exchange of our prosperity?

Meet you soon again diary..

And..a very happy new year to you..