Between Brothers...

Sometimes the purest feelings in us are left unsaid…
In order to look emotionally strong, people often end up emotionally dead…
They say that’s the case with you, so far and detached from him; but I never listen to others…
Yes we may not say it that often, but being apart? That’s never the case with brothers…

I remember growing up with him, fighting over the smallest things before mother…
Giving each other bruises, and when father confronted us, covering up for each other…
Mother often tells us both an incident now ages old…
How my brother, a sports fanatic in his youth, left me unattended when I was hardly a year old…
We both laugh it off, knowing that it was an innocent mistake of the past…
That we’d watch after each other, till life in us lasts…

It wasn’t a smooth ride, it hardly ever is…
Very few face the challenge of living under a shadow as big as his…
He was a brilliant student, dynamic and enthusiast…
He left strong and lovable impressions on whomever he met, which still last…
So a heavy task was set to me, when I had seen too few summers pass…
Of creating my own identity, to match him, if not surpass…

I won’t deny that his shadow also helped me grow…
To be known as his brother had its own perks you know…
So, just as he cast his shadow, he was the one who helped me escape…
He looked out for me and gave my future a definite shape…
He introduced me to my first comic, my first novel…
He taught me to face ordeals, never to grovel…

He helped with my studies, gave me time whenever he could afford…
Pushed me by praises and criticisms, just so I could beat his records…
When I was little, I loved being called by his name…
But as adolescence kicked in, I started to feel ashamed…
I complained to my parents, ranted out on him…
He just gave one of his wry smiles, filling me with determination up to the brim…

I slogged hard, feeling like David against Goliath…
With age I became mature, thought about his smile and finally did the math…
He had been helping me as always, teaching me to have a spine…
I turned out straight and strong, I had a good reputation, a special position that was mine…
That’s when I again started to feel proud…
“Yes, I am his brother”, I said it out aloud…

There was that day and this; I have never stopped feeling gratitude…
But I never said it to him, because that was our attitude…
We still quip about things, about each other…
Play pranks and have heated arguments, like the old days before mother…
I know he looks out for me, guides me through college…
I too play my own small role sometimes in increasing his knowledge…

Yes, we are not too sentimental; we never say it out aloud…
We give each other freedom; never mingle in other one’s crowd…
We do not with love have each other smothered…
But being distant and detached, is never going to happen between us brothers...

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