My sweetheart: For my little Bro.

It was that time of the year again when school's hostel used to get new occupants. There were new faces everywhere some sad, some happy and some bidding their final goodbyes. I stood on my hostel stairs thinking how its going to be a special day tomorrow. It would be special because my little brother Rishi was joining hostel. He was to enter class 2nd then, so you can imagine that when I say little, I literally mean it :). Ma had called up and told me he was all excited over the thought that he would get to be with his Didda (he calls me that) and have all the fun. What he miscalculated or shall I say missed out on was that Ma-Pa won't be there.

Finally the day arrived and he was there with Ma. After all the hostel formalities and shopping she finally bid goodbye to both of us and left. And that's when my brother's hostel life started. I can never forget how he cried when she left. It melts my heart every time that scene flashes across my mind of him crying out loud and trying to run towards the gate. I kept trying to distract him by telling him of all the fun we will have but nothing mattered at that point and all he wanted was for Ma to come back. He said call up Ma, she will come back and I replied, there's no phone. And as smart as he is, he said, "no I had seen a phone in the office, call her from there". After a while he calmed down but kept aloof and to himself. As a special case, school allowed him to stay with me in the girl's dormitory for a few days till he settled down. Slowly he stopped asking to go home, not because he forgot things or got fine with being away, but because he resigned to the fact that there's no going back for a long time.

During the school hours, I guess he did ok, but during games I would see him walking alone all by himself and run to him. I used to call little kids and ask them to be with him and they replied, "didi we always call him but he never comes". He was a kid who was loved at home, taken care of like the only baby in the world and here he was, in an unknown place without the comfort of home, love of Maa and his strength and support "papa". It took him a long time to settle down but did it so well. Gradually he settled in the hostel life and things began to change for good. Every sport was new to him and I guess he promised that he won't leave playing any of it. That's why during every vacation when we went home and Papa used to ask him what he played, it was always a new game :D. He was always among the toppers of his class, had "contacts" with the seniors :D. Life had become pretty good for him except for the fact that he didn't get to eat more than one omelette's during breakfast :D and one Sukhdev bhaiya (a helper in junior boys hostel) whom he called "Dukhdev Bhaiya" really troubled him by catching his mischiefs and complaining to the wardon :D. Oh! and one more problem was the canteen coupon of 200/month that we used to get was pretty less for my sweety :D.

All in all, this phase of our life is such that even today when we start talking about it, it can go on for hours and hours with almost the same stories and it never gets boring :).