The Two Men of the Family!!

Well well, I could have written something about Mickey again, but I am waiting for something interesting to happen to him. In fact, he went to a party last night; and the last SMS I received from him read, “This party has babes…” I am yet to hear from him after that. It’s a Sunday morning and he won’t wake up before 12, especially after the party last night. So keep waiting people.

Meanwhile….

Let me write about my Dad and my brother. I think a lot of guys would relate to it. Between these two it’s a perfect love and hate relation. They Love to Hate each other, and Hate to Love each other. Since the time he was a baby, my dad had understood that this guy is gonna show him stars during the day.

Every year, my brother would get 2 gifts. One on his birthday ofcourse, and one on my birthday as well. If Dushy wanted a video game, he would create such a ruckus that he would actually get it. Once he wanted a new bicycle, he stopped eating food. My dad had to go and get one the same day. “Taare Zameen Pe” had a completely different meaning for my dad.

Dushy is a very different kid. Very sharp, but yes, you have to get him interested. Maths for one, never interested him at all. My mother used to go crazy teaching him. The scene would be, my mom sitting on the study table writing in his notebook and my brother is jumping all over the place dictating steps of the problem to her. So, for his 7th standard Final Exams, my dad decided to teach him. Two nights before the paper, the two warriors were planning to complete the entire syllabus. Just the night before the exam, Dush was all drained out, Papa had a worn out expression. Finally, he told him, “OK just forget everything and go and write your exam, we’ll see what happens”. Next day early morning, my dad was sitting on the edge of the bed and sweating. My mother had a scare of her life, “Are you fine? What happened?”. He said, “I had a horrible dream, I saw that I have died and all my folks are coming howling and crying over my body.” My mother burst out laughing and said, “You just taught him one subject for one exam, I have been teaching him for all these years. Its ok relax, he’ll be fine. You go off to sleep.”

The day the exams got over, my dad fixed up tuitions for Dushy. His argument was, “Let somebody outside the family die, instead of my wife.”

Dushy did pass that exam. But yes my dad went to take his report card. There was a girl who came crying out of the class, she hadn’t passed the Maths exam. My dad was trembling. When he came to the class, the teacher said, “Dushyant, you have to collect the report from the Registrar’s office.” My father had almost fainted. Dush made him sit in the classroom and went ahead himself. Nothing, he was in NCC and there were formalities to be completed. He got the result, came whistling in the classroom, took Papa and brought him back home.

But then my dad got the better of him. He got him admitted in Sainik School. My baby brother went though a sea change! Firstly, he no more remained that sweet and cute little baby. He turned into a strapping lad. Tall, handsome, matured, controlled. But yes, that Tom & Jerry race never ended in our house!

He came home after his 10th boards and joined a junior college in Pune. Once again, the game began.

One fine day my dad decided to pay a surprise visit to Dushy’s college. Dush with his friends was perched on the compound wall right at the entrance when Papa walked in. He jumped down as soon as he saw Papa. His friend was asking, “what happened dude? Who is he?” Dush had flying saucers dashing in his brain! After that the entire day was quite eventful. Papa went around the college to meet each and every Professor of his and each one of them refused to even recognize my darling brother. I think all you guys can not even imagine what must be the atmosphere in our house for next one week. My dad had thought, this guy has gone out of hands. After about a week or so, my dad came to our room and said, “Bhai! if you pass this year you’ll get a 2 wheeler and if you flunk you’ll get a 3 wheeler, you decide what you want.”

My brother has managed to keep the 3 wheeler away so far. However, my dad did lose his 2 wheeler. Papa had this Lambaretta (I don’t even know if that’s the correct spelling) and he had won it in a lottery even before I was born. Both me and brother would hate it from the core of hearts to be caught sitting pillion on that damned thing. And more so in your teenage when your image is of utmost importance amongst your peers. Dush used to hide his face with something if Papa took him with him on that scooter. One day, on an unfortunate occasion his friend recognized him and called him out. Dush refused to look up. That was it. Dush had decided something had to be done. That week Mom had gone to her native. Our grandma wasn’t felling well. Dush picked up Papa’s scooter, sold it in Chor Bazaar, and got 1500 bucks that too for the weight of the iron. Coolly, came and gave the money to Papa. My father was exasperated. That evening he called up Mom and was talking for an hour about what Dush had done. My dad gets a little attached to all his machines. My mother was consoling him on one end and yelling at Bhai at the other end.

Dushy came to Bangalore for his graduation. Then too he didn’t let my father stand at ease. The first time he came home, we were so excited to see him. But went he went back and we got our Phone Bill… well what can I say! My dad called him, “Son, please inform in advance when you come for a vacation next time, I can have the phone-lines disconnected.”

Once vacation he came with long locks and a goatie. My Father was livid. I made him promise that he will never do that again. He did, but next vacation he shaved his head off. All my father could say was, “Son! I am still alive.”

We still haven’t reached the time of his marriage, the time he’ll buy a house, a car. I keep wondering about what will happen on all these occasions. But yes, in the heart of hearts I know my dad loves him more and my brother is concerned about his father. Of course, Dush thinks his dad is too out dated for this world and that’s where his concern stems from. :-)