Deteriorating the manly image (2008)

It was in the first quarter of 2008. I had started working as a content writer in Mumbai. My second brother had also come to the dream city to try his destiny. Both of us were living in our first sister’s in-laws’ house. We were not comfortable staying there, but didn’t have any other option.

One day, to everyone’s surprise, my third brother made a phone call to me. As we rarely talked to each other, there was a dead air for a while. Then, he revealed the reason of making the call. He said that he had watched a dream the previous night. I thought the subject of the dream would be, “I abused him with some foul word. He complained against me to our first brother and I was beaten black and blue, the two colors I disliked the most.”

Before I could reveal my wild guess, he said, “Do you remember during childhood, we used to go to village Lathi to visit the fair? In my dream, both of us were going to see the fair. As usual, a tractor moved across us and we ran after it. What usually happened, we both used to end up in failure. But this time, there was a difference. You tried your best and went on to the tractor; I couldn’t. I ran after the vehicle for a while and then fell down on the ground. You were staring at me until you could see me. And then, you disappeared. The alarm rang up. It was 6:30 in the morning. I got up. I thought, as grandma used to say, dreams seen during early morning are often true. You truly, went far away from me in life. But do not stop here. You have a long way to go.” He kept the phone down.

One drop of tear came out of each of my eyes, deteriorating my manly image. One travelled towards my right ear through the right cheek and the other, from my left eye, climbed towards the tip of my nose. It was about to fall into the glass of water which I just forgot to drink after having my dinner, I returned to my senses. My sister saw tears in my eyes for the first time since I was in Mumbai. My second brother asked me “what happened?” My sister didn’t say anything. It was all a blur, but I could see one drop of tear falling from each of her eyes. Even she hadn’t heard our conversation. It’s so nice to have a sister. They are so touching!!