Friday 3 June 2011

My unconventional (elder) sis



'The power of your subconscious mind', the title read. I was engrossed in reading, when my sis walked in.

So, finally, she had woken up from the long last night's sleep, which started like, around 2 AM and ended now, at 11 AM. She watched 3 movies the last night, one after the other, glued to the television like she never saw one before. That was the only thing she seemed to like, since she landed at home for holidays this time. She wasn't interested in anything else, be it bathing, changing clothes, going out, and blah.

I, on the other side, used to be glued to self help books and auto-biographies. It was the breakup season, and what else could be more soothing?

I wasn't allowed to question her newly found deep interest in the television. My initial queries were disregarded and shrugged off. She just mentioned something like, 'Hostelites regarded the television as a sacred entity, which is rarely available and to be valued' or something.

I thought she had a point and dropped my further queries. No wonder I dint go to the television as a resort, as I was home and had it at my disposal.

If now, self help books, that too when I'm bored, would only make things worse. I have been enlightened now, about the healing effects of movies, friends, gossips and rides, which is found nowhere else, spare the self help books. (No offense intended)

My sister had known this earlier, and may be she thought of me as an amateur in the art of life, being carried away by the momentary pleasures got by reading books, unaware of the eternal bliss that movies and friends could bring about!

Sis really had an aversion to such books. Nausea, vertigo and wheezing would begin whenever she saw or heard of one. But now, this morning, she looked afresh and I thought I can pour over some drops of philosophy on her this time.

I called her to sit besides me and said, 'Listen, this is something you should rrreally take a look at. Its about the subconscious mind. You know what, its really amazing!'

Just the title and intro were enough for her, and the expression on her face made me feel she is about to puke. I pestered her to let me read out a para. I narrated how the belief that we carry in our subconscious about our ability to do or not do things, actually affects our actions, and that we could train the subconscious to believe what we want to believe, about our capablities.

She replied in a single sentence 'Gosh!! Dint you know that before? Should someone tell you its so??' -- and gave me a god-save-this-fool kind of look and walked off, grabbing the Cosmopolitan from the table.

I wasn't surprised and went back to my reading. Later, I browsed my book rack for some stuff which would interest her. In fact, I loved to please her. I cooked well, and prepared new recipes for her to taste, and sometimes even tried my stint at make-up on her face. I would turn out unsuccessful as she found everything unsurprising most of the times.

I finally grabbed 'Wings of Fire' and '7 habits' and went searching for her. She sat in front of the TV, relishing granny's breakfast preparation and browsing the channels. I cuddled up to her and said, ' You know what, these ones are awesome. You will love APJ! And 7 Habits is better than You can win!'. It dint work, and she turned back to TV. I dint pester her much, as I had been chased around the compound and beaten up by her not so long ago, for doing the same.

I have always loved C programming. I loved the way Yashwant Kanetkar wrote. I had got cracking on a chapter on functions that evening. My sis came in after her evening snacks. I dragged her to my table and went on, 'Listen, C programming is the awesome-est thing I have ever learnt. Let me teach you something!' and continued, ignoring the about-to-puke expression setting off on her face.

'Lets say you have 2 letters in 2 slots. You have to swap the 2 without using a third slot. Tell me how do you do it!'

She looked at me like she was worried about me, thinking that I have some serious problem.

I continued, 'See, you have to use something called a pointer for that. Let me explain you whats that'.

By that time, dad called her to savour some tender coconut water brought just for her all the way from our village. She escaped.

I was heart broken. I really thought I could make her love C programming. I mean, it could happen, though she was studying medicine, as me, being an engineering student, never got bored by her lectures on anatomy, paediatrics and what not. In fact I loved the long chats whenever she gave me discourses on all the wonderful things about the human body, and her experiences as a med student, the hostel, gossips and blah.

But now, when I tried to give her an intro of things in my profession, she never seemed to be interested. She ran away the moment whenever she saw a 'Let us C' or '7 habits' with me.

At bedtime that night, I showed her my new lip color which I had carefully chosen for myself. This was for college and parties, and I loved the color. It had a dark pink shade.
'Eew!! The color!! Are you trying to look like a slut?' she inquired.

I then showed her my new red-Nike sweatshirt. I had fallen in love with it at first sight, and made it mine, shelling out a 2K or something.

She declared: 'Looks like you flicked it from some coolie at the station!'

It was time to give up, and I went to bed, grabbing a Sheldon and a pencil. I had this habit of underlining the new words in a book, so that I can look up a dictionary later for their meaning.

My sis looked at me and went to the cupboard, searching for something. She came back to me after a while, with an eraser and a ruler, and held it out to me. She said, 'You could use the ruler to draw lines wherever you stop for the day, and even make boxes for the words instead of lines. It would be better.'

I burst out laughing, and then, she too. We laughed till we got tears. I could barely control it!! I laughed so much that my tummy ached!


Whatever time I spent with her, it was awesome.
She IS awesome!!

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