Rakhi 2020 : A Rakhi Like No Other

If you have been made to get up early, take a shower and wear something ethnic, you live in an Indian household. In our households, praying and wearing multiple layers of clothes that put the layering trend to shame (might be a ‘recent trend’ for others but we’ve been doing it for years) have always been normal.

Image Credits : https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/happyrakhi-332478-2016-08-17

What’s the new normal? Doing this for zoom calls.

Can you imagine Raksha Bandhan this year? This time, since it’s on a Monday, will the brother have time in between meetings to video call?

Will he surprise me on Rakhi this year? Maybe not

Or this year would he be at home with us? Because he can work from home anyway.

I hope he gets me a good gift this year. With so much free time, he can’t make any excuses this year. You know what? I will remind him from now itself. That pretty LED Light Board from Snooplay, that would be perfect. I will send him the link.

         

                               

But all the negative news in 2020 made me realise how much we take for granted. At a time when everyone is susceptible to catching a deadly virus, its best for all of us that he does not surprise me for Rakhi this year.

As long as my brother is health, happy and fit, I don’t have much to complain about. 

And so what if he doesn’t buy me a nice gift? He survived a pandemic, learnt to cook like a pro and learnt how to clean the house. He is way more independent now than I ever imagined he would be.

Also maybe eating his special white sauce pasta that he posted about on Instagram, whenever we meet next, would be cooler than any other gift he could get me.

I’d prefer his company over materialistic gifts and other things. So this year, when we video call with him for Raksha Bandhan and when mom says to him ‘You didn’t have a shower right?’ or ‘Is that a girl’s voice in the background?’, I’ll just laugh and tell mom that she’s wrong and make up some cock and bull story to save your sorry ass, like I do every year.

Because this Rakhi, everything will be different but yet nothing will change.