Fighting over Food in the bachpan!

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Hello dear readers! I am back after almost two months of running after the admissions in MBA colleges, sleeping, falling sick, recovering, falling sick again and then finally getting back to the routine! I am back to college life now and also the the world of blogging!
I am happy to see that the blog has kept up its readership in my absence. Thats a big thank you to all of you!
Ok, Lets get back to the blog posts now!
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Everyone of us who is lucky enough to have a sibling, be it elder or younger, is also lucky enough to learn the importance of sharing. Sharing food, sharing sweets, sharing clothes and even sharing the scoldings and beatings of parents, we siblings do it all!

I remember certain instances from my childhood days when we used to buy certain food items from hotels to have in the evenings. The food items would be exactly enough for the family members and me and my brother would always get into altercations like India and Pakistan over 'kisko jyada mila hai'. He has got more than me! How can you do like this? (to our mother!) Ultimately we would throw daggers at each others like South-Indian heroes via our eyes and still manage to enjoy our snacks.

I also remember telling my aunt one fine evening when one of the Mahabharats over the division of snacks (which were incidentally Venky's Chicken Nuggets!), " Me motha jhalo na ki me ekta ek packet vikat ghenar aani ektach akkha packet khanar!" (" When I grow up, I will buy one whole packet only for myself and have it alone!")

The reply that she gave to me was, " You will not enjoy it as much when you eat alone as you are enjoying it now while fighting over the food with your brother!"
Being a kid, I ridiculed her reply and did not quite understand the depth of the statement.

But today, when my brother is not here and is thousands of miles away from me, I get plenty of opportunities to have delicacied all on my own here. Chicken Sandwich, Mithais, Chocolate cakes, Samosas, Vadas all are at my mercy. I get to have them alone! What I had said one fine evening was indeed coming true! I was getting to have food all alone without sharing it!!

But then why was I not enjoying the food? Why was the chocolate cake not so delicious and tasty? Why was the chicken sandwich not that juicy and yummy as it used to be when we fought over food?

It was then that realization dawned upon me. The wisdom of the reply that my aunt had given me several years back hit me like punch in the nose. My brother wasn't here...

To fight over the food, to share it and always get the smaller share, being treated 'unfair' by the parents and him being preferred all the time, I getting more scoldings and he being let off lightly my brother was not here. The main ingredient which made the food that I ate after fighting and yet sharing it so tasty and fulfilling was not here!

And hence what our parents never said but inculcated in us from our childhoods - the habit of sharing- is so important in life. Sharing increases the love between siblings. It binds them so tightly together that even if they are thousands of miles away they are still bound together by that bond that they 'share'.

And that is why I do not enjoy the delicacies so much nowadays because of the absence of the very factor which made them worth fighting for!

Aamir Khan has rightly said in Andaz Apna Apna, " Arre, Do chai kyu? Ek chai vapas, Ek chai vapas! Do Dost ek pyale mein chaai piyenge, isse dosti badhti hai, isse pyaar badhta hai!"

So my only message to all the people would be to share! Because sharing your things with others increases the friendship and love!


-Pranjal Wagh



This work by Pranjal A. Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License