The Other Brother

The following post, is a voluntary contribution, by a close friend, an inspiration, and one of the readers of this blog. It is a response to an earlier post made by the blog author titled "For the Brother that I could never have". Thank you. Its an honor for the blog. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, Gaurav Ojha.

Dear Brother,

I got your last letter, hope you sent it in better health and spirit than when the CIA agents last left you. You know it brother that somewhere deep inside i do love you. But as you say, we've never been able to be brothers by choice.

I know I have been wrong and misguided at times, but you have had your share of mistakes too (my legs still hurt due to that running session of ours in Gujarat). Even I have hurt you brother for which I am sorry, but then, what is a family without a few feuds?!! Sometimes, but rarely brother, when I sit quietly amidst all the chaos around us, ignoring the blasts in the neighborhood plaza, or the constant blabbering in the television stating the new release of Osama's video, I do think.

I think about the times how we were back during the swaraj demonstrations screaming together, or when the spectacled man in the white khadi would make us mere silent puppets when all we wanted was to pick the nearest gun and shoot. i think of the times when the big, giant towers fell and i saw you being convicted in front of my eyes yet doing nothing. Believe me when I say this, I never thought you deserved it. I think of the colors the "Great Artist" up there had chosen when he painted both of us together, of the story he plotted. And then I think is this our fate? Am I condemned to always miss you, to search for you in the shadows of the night? Why brother tell me, despite being born of the same earth, having played the same games are we both made different from each other. Or are we different at all? is it just an illusion from the outside? Is it that after all we have seen, done and been through, we are but the same soul, just trapped in different bodies? Is it that we just dress differently, you in a turban, me in a kurta; pray differently, you bowing  down to the Koran, and me lighting a candle in the church? 

And then I think that yes my brother we both have to be like this,for aeons to come. We have to play holi together, eat kheer together and hide presents for our children before Christmas Eve and pretend Santa came. We need to hate each other, as we need to compete with each other and in turn help ourselves get better. We need to be different for the existence of the plethora of cultures around us. We can never meet brother, ever. But we are essentially the same. For as you said-"We are brothers by destiny", yet separated by the sandstorms of events around us. Yes at times I don’t like it when you treat me like an outsider, but then it’s okay. I forget it when you narrate stories of faraway lands, of beautiful ladies and of the various other adventures you had when you were out cruising the world and I was waiting eagerly.

For you to come back...

Brother we are the same blood, flesh and soul, yet we are not the same. It is in our destiny to fight, to love, to cry, to kill and then to forgive again. And the right to love me, it was always yours, you just didn't realize it, as you continue to do so even now.

Yours truly

The brother that can still be....

Submitted by

Gaurav Ojha