My Brother....Santosh

Some relations need not be associated with a tag or a formal assignation to make you feel emotionally bonded. There are certain relations which gets formed automatically. Santosh Bhaiya is one of them. He doesn’t belong to my family but is a part of my family, we don’t have blood relation but I have always felt very, very attached to him. I’ve had the best days of my life with him. The best days. I can never, ever forget those moments spent with him and bhaiya( Tushar ). The three of us used to have a ball when mummy and papa used to go out of station for some medical conference and the entire house was left to the three of us. We used to play cricket, watch cricket, do all sorts of crazy things, spearheaded by bhaiya( Tushar). Right from blowing a Chocolate Bomb( those Diwali Bombs, remember?) in the very own dining room to throwing slippers at the television when an Indian player used to play badly. Or, breaking certain things and trying failingly to conceal it from mummy. Santosh Bhaiya used to cook for us( I can’t forget the Chowmein, Maggi and Chicken Curry). He used to advise us, play with us, scold us. He was our father, mother, brother when mom and dad were not around. And I thank god that there were plenty of medial conferences because had they not been, I could have never, ever lived such a life.
Santosh Bhaiya was just a simple compounder in my dad’s clinic but we never treated him like that. He was my brother, my mom’s third son. My brother. It is one relation in my life I’m really proud of. I used to go to him with my Hindi book and he used to ask me questions from the chapter I recently memorized( preparation for exams), he used to get those ‘Big Fun’ chewing gums which had a card of a cricketer free with it. He used to bring one daily. When Bhaiya used to tease me after watching ‘Aahat’ and ‘Zee Horror Show’ ( which I NEVER watched), I used to run away from my room and go to Santosh Bhaiya’s room and sleep on his bed. Sometimes, in the middle of night when I used to have bad( read scary, full of snakes and everything, a bad filmy dream :) ) dream( which was, ahem, almost daily) I used to hug Santosh Bhaiya and sleep on his bed. And somehow I can never, ever forget those things. The little way in which he used to care for us. There was a special relation between us and only we know it- Me, Bhaiya and Santosh Bhaiya.

We also used to go eat out every evening. And I used to say, “ Santosh Bhaiya kuch baahar khila dijiye, hisaab me likh lijiega and paisa papa se le lijiega”. And we used to eat out daily. Egg Roll, Chicken Roll, Chowmein, Chicken Chilly, Pakodas and what not on one of those numerous ‘thelas’. And even today whenever we meet, although we can go out and eat in a swanky place, but we NEVER do it. We still go to those ‘thelas’ and live our life. Yes, that was life. That was happiness. That was fun.

Now, he is a married man and lives separately with his family. He has got a daughter who is 4 years old. She has recently started going to school. It has been 14 years since I have known Santosh Bhaiya and now I’m going to United States. I mean, yes, I would meet him again, but it kind of feels strange. I don’t know when I would meet him and how, my own life would entangle me I’m sure. But, whatever happens, one thing is for sure. I promise myself that I will look after his family real well. I will make sure that his daughter gets the best education possible. I know I would be in a situation to help and help would I.

There are some people with whom parting would not be easy and Santosh bhaiya for sure is one of them.