mp3
When I cannot think of anything, 'mp3' comes to mind.
I dunno why, but it does..It is indeed a bit odd..since I do not even have a MP3 player..

Today, finally ,my house is quiet. Two sets of mama jeez and their faimilies had come for one whole week.. then, at times I had longed for quiet and now i find myself longing for the constant chatter and laughter that my home was resounding with till some time back.

From being the sole and proud owner of a double bed , I had been sharing my room and hence the double bed with 4(!!!!!) people!!!
I have a thirteen year old cousin who can blabber without stopping for hours on end!! (When she was 10, she gave me loads of gyan about how babies are born and also presented me with a detailed list of problems an older cousin had faced while delivering her baby.)

Well, she happens to be a beeg time darpok as well. At night she used to sleep right next to me, filling me up with latest family gossip as we lay waiting for the rest of the crowd to settle down ..I would never come to know when the lights dimmed , when the chatter stopped and when all of us fell asleep..but yess...sometime in the middle of the night a light hand would stealthily find its way to my head and stay lightly there for sometime...then the hand would quietly search for my hand under my head...genlty pull it away from me, straighten it and soon a light, brown head would be sleeping , peacefully dreaming its hundred dreams resting on my hand , as the pillow which had been an innocent cause of a not so innocent battle of sorts between two sisters lay unused.

Sometime back when I had visited my nani, where this cousin(M) lives as well, M and I went cycling once. Cycling after a long gap of many many years , on lane by our house, with M sitting pillion was , maybe, not a very good idea , as very soon I banged into the cycle of another fellow cycling enthusiast.

I fell on the road, and since I had grazed my knee real bad, big ,fat tears soon started on their long journey across my face. So, I was sitting on the road, knee bleeding and me crying when my eyes fell on M.
Her face red with anger, hand on her hips, finger pointing accusingly at the boy , M screamed out the following words-"tumhari himmat kaise hui meri didi koh rulane ki!!!"

Mama jee , unfortunately saw this from the balcony.
Even today he has a grand time telling anyone who would listen about a twenty year old girl who sat on the road and cried cuz she had grazed her knee while her 12 year old sister gave the boy responsible for the minor accident a piece of her mind.

ahem

Apart from M , another cousin, S was here as well. S is exactly a month older but somehow we do not really bond.No, we do not fight or anything of that sort. As in we share jokes and make small talk and all that, but we do not bond . I do not know why , though...
So when S was about to leave, my Mum got us to sit down together, made us hold hands and clasped our held hands between both of hers.
And she told us that each of us has just another brother. Thats not enough support. We need each other, we need to love each other, we need to be there for one another. She said that if S were to get through a college of her choice, I should feel as happy as I would were I to get thru my dream college and the same goes for S as well.
At times I tried to wiggle my hand out of my Mum and S's grasp but my Mum asked me to continue holding S's hand. She told me I will remember this till I live.
In a matter of a few minutes, and after loads of such things from Mum I could feel my hand relaxing in S's hand. I could feel hers becoming more relaxed as well....
My Mum turned to us and said" So, do the two of you promise to call each other up often from now on??"
S looked at me and I looked at her and somehow for the first time in our lives, as we sat on that fine afternoon in the dinning room holding hands, we connected...
Her pretty face broke into a smile.
I realised I was smiling too.
"yess", the two of us said.
Softly , but together.

Yess, Ma you are right, I will remember how you made me hold S's hand .
Always.