Harind. [A sister remembers]

The youngest of us all and thinnest too.
Was my closest companion since childhood to teenage.He stuck to me whether I wanted his company or not .Attended the same school went by the same bus had the same friends. Being barely one and a quarter years older I was forced to take care of him and with that wielded some authority over him.
I remember him crying loudly if and when I did'nt wait for him while trekking 1 km to school at Mysore at the age of seven.
On the way back we made several halts. Once to let a busy looking white cobra with its hood open to pass between us or skirt carefully away from the huge pack of mongrels that roamed our colony freely.We often snacked on ripe and sweet gooseberries that covered an entire tree on the way by shaking the tree to make them fall.
During school vacations we used to watch in merriment our dog swimming in a tank filled with water after throwing it in to see whether it could swim.Then we would skip down to a pond and catch those small fishes swimming around in a handkerchief and transfer them to a water filled bottle. But to our dismay they would all die to within a day or two as we did'nt know how to take care of them.
At the age of 10 I learnt to monkey peddle my elder brother's huge Atlas cycle and ofcourse Harind perched himself on the back seat and enjoyed my cycling.During rainy days when we were forced to stay indoors we pulled each others ears and cheeks and yelled at the top of our voices to the watch man of our dad's office which was within hearing distance to fetch petromax lights during power failures.
Those were halcyon days ! Being a central research laboratory a lot of interesting things happened in the huge sprawling office where our father worked . It was but a few meters away from our palatial government residence .
There was glass blowing to be seen and then to shiver fearfully in a minus degree cold room fearfully lest we get locked in. Then to view all those animals kept for research cute guinea pigs,monkeys,eagles white rabbits and mice kept in a nearby animal house and mingle with south eastAsian [research scholars] whose hostel was few yards away to whom my father doubled as a warden.
Then when our father got transferred to Hyderabad two years later, the friends I made in the staff colony were also his and his friends [the older one's] were my fans. He didn't know that! Had a great time playing 9 stones[pittu],cards and seeing free of cost films shown in the office club and exchanged gossip before falling asleep.
Our pre teens and early teens at Hyderabad was also marked by terrific fights, pinching, wrestling and kicking which left at times one of us bleeding from minor injuries!But the very next day we would become pals!
After a couple o f years again we shifted camp to Delhi.Here also we attended the same school there fore had common teachers,friends and gossips.Harind had a lot of older brothers to play or talk with but with a decade or so age gap, I was his nearest in age and in interests.
My bossing days came to an end when at the age of 16 he grew a head taller than me and started speaking in a deep and gruff voice. I nobly withdrew . Consoling myself that discretion is best part of valour.
Though we studied in different colleges we knew each others pals.When I decided to get married when we repaired back to Madras when my father retired Harind was shocked at my latching on to a total stranger ,little realising that I was growing into a old maid [by those days standards] ,had received several glad eyes from guys but no concrete proposals hence the best option to me then seemed like any other Indian woman to settle for arranged marriage.
Harind couldnt get over his shock and sought advise and refuge from his experienced male cousins who consoled him saying that all big sisters will play, compete for food,scratch your eyes, compete to read comics and novels and then suddenly latch on to a stranger and wave a goodbye.
After marriage didnt have much contact and I was surprised that he too chose to study law .
Vidat was born and soon his younger brother followed.To both of them Harind was the favourite 'mama' to my dismay since ,though grown in years and experiences our skirmishes still continued.
Harind was popular amongst my friends,his friends,our relatives and my mother!He would eat a handful and play the whole day-marbles,flying kites, cricket and swimming.And read for but few hours and pass all exams.He would fearlessly dive from a rocky out crop in Tirumala hills deep into the natural pond formed by waterfalls far below and would powerfully and skilfully swim across the rapidly flowing Ganges river at Haridwar and tug at the chains hanging from the middle of the bridge across the river. A dare devil! He would also fight for the rights of those he considered to be downtrodden tirelessly.
I couldnt believe it when he had a heart attack at 47 years .The youngest and the last of us all to be the first to suffer a heart attack!
A poignant fact was that being the youngest of a brood of 5 siblings , he was pushed around .The kindest attention in his last day's were those he got from Vidat .Vidat's hero, a fallen hero whose state evoked sympathy and compassion and made him shower his mama with love,attention and gifts .Thus Vidat erased any hurt I could have caused to my younger brother whilst growing up together or even in later days .
The heart attack did not deter Harind. He hopped out of the bed within a month and ran up and down the stairs shrugging of his ailment with the characteristic 'come what may attitude' and in the process suffered a cardiac arrest within a year and left me forever.
Did Harind have a inkling that his end was near?He rang me up 2 days before and spoke to me at length and told me emotionally that he would adopt Vidat his favourite nephew ,who on the eve of his departure to U.S to pursue higher studies visited his mama frequently ,and HE DID .Vidat also left me fore ever 18 days later, chasing his favourite mama in the vast expanse of the universe. .