Chapter 5: Man is a social animal, woman is the king of pride.

In life there are few people you meet, some people you do not meet. Some people you meet and wish you never meet them again and then there are some people you meet, and wish you never meet them again and yet you meet them again and again and again. And then there are those who are biologically your relatives and you pray they never met you.



Such was the relation with my twin brother, we both were twins, but for some reason he always consider himself older than me, yeah, as if six minutes matter than much. Still, I prefer to keep him a distance away from me.
They say we cannot chose our relatives, but we can choose our friends, but ideally I was always bad at multiple choice questions, primarily the reason why I did not participate in the ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ show. I was always closely surrounded by two of my close friends, Jatinder Kaur and Sunny.
Jatinder came from a small village in Punjab with a expiry date from her family to establish some career in the big city. Her life was more complicated than the plait she tied of her hair. She was total supportive while organizing the party and was a total control freak she usually handed the invitations and the decorations, the problem was she was always shy and hidden in the shadows during the party.
A few parties ago, I met Sunny, the happy go lucky gambler who works as a RJ with the local radio station. He was quite fun to be around, always obsessed with this bets and a prankster. He was the heart and soul of the party, the problem was he was never the heart and soul while organizing the party.
So when I enter the room he was in between a heater argument with my friend Priyanka, who well is a big complicated character which I need more than a paragraph to tell you. Just one thing, she likes to slap Sunny.
‘Pretty girls can get away with anything,’ he said, ‘Ten to one bet, I can prove it to you.’
‘You are going to loose it, dude,’ Priyanka said, ‘Accepted on ten’
‘Sunny,’ I smiled at him, ‘Did you give order for the Paneer Tikka?’
He stared at me for a moment, ‘Yes, about that…’ he smiled stupidly, ‘You see I tried calling them, but apparently the phone lines are not working.’
‘Since last week?’ I asked trying to control my anger.
‘Right, I will quickly hop on and order it ok,’ he said. I do not trust him, once he moves out of my vigil radius he will get out of control, ‘Priyanka, go along with him to ensure he gives the order properly and does not place any bets with the manager.’
‘Right, Priya, hop on and I will also prove you that pretty girls can get away with anything on the way,’ he said and ran out.
Paneer Tikka was a special dish on the menu, it was my Brothers favorite dish, today was the day I introduced my boyfriend to him. Inviting my brother to the party, which was a big question mark for me. When we were in eight class, I had brought a school friend with me home to study, but Rahul my brother started haunting him like Rahu, the worst planet in astronomy, and asked him some weird question that scared the boy and he ran away. The boy never talked to me ever since.
As we grew older, we came to the same city eventually, Rahu met his own pair, Ketan, who I not sure what is exactly… actually I do not thing anyone is sure what is exactly. So like these lovely couple Rahu-Ketu became distant from my life slowly and gradually.
But this year was different, I wanted to resolve the sibling issues and wanted to re-connected with my brother, the problem with introducing your choice to your blood relation is that they never have faith in your choice, but still I had to do it.
I dialed his number and let it connect… but suddenly disconnected. What will he say? God, why is it so difficult? To be frank, I don’t want to loose Sunny. We are not committed or exclusive… I am not sure where we are headed…but I still want to keep him. God.
So the next few hours passed in organizing the party, slowly the checklist I prepared started ending…and a single task remained unchecked on it. I was pushing it till the end, hoping that the world will end soon before I had to talk to him…
Was I ready to introduce Sunny as my boyfriend to my family member? I glanced at Sunny, who was still laughing with Priya about some boy on the street on whom they threw hot coffee…Was Sunny ready to become my boyfriend in front of my family?
I held the phone in my hand…took a deep breath… Sunny will never be ready for this…never, ever…but it had to be done… so with a heavy heart, I dialed my brothers number…
‘Hello bro,’ I said deeply…
After the light call, I thought the hard part was over…apparently not. If talking to Rahul was such hard thing on phone, seeing him in my party was more harder. It is really difficult to image a person with my same look but different gender isn’t it? I did all I could to hide Sunny from the beginning to the end of party…but finally, new year was here and I could avoid it no longer…it had to be done.
So at the peek hour of midnight, I introduced the two most weird people on the planet…Sunny and Rahul… and all I got was…
‘Oh boy,’ Sunny said.
‘What the…’ Rahul screamed, ‘HE IS YOUR WHAT?’
‘Ok ok…Bro…erm…tikki?’ I offered him another one, wondering how much will it take to stuff his mouth? I know he loves Paneer Tikka…he cannot say no…
‘I… but…’ he mumbled apparently trying to resist the temptation, ‘Ok one. but still Tania, he is a idiot.’
‘No he is not,’ I said, ‘he is a fine young man…’ I turned to Sunny who was busy rubbing his cheeks and gazing at Rahul, dumbfounded, ‘Well, he is usually fine…’
I really have no idea why Sunny was so shocked today, he usually was so chirpy.
‘Hi, I am Sunny,’ after five minutes he managed to speak… then there was a drilling ‘Seedhi Baat’ session with my brother who kept asking awkward questions, which Sunny bounced back smarty.
‘You know,’ Rahul finally said, this is it, judgment day…, ‘I really don’t want to meddle in your personal life sis, but if you want to introduce him to Dai amma…,’ Dai Amma, the second devil himself, our grandmother, who was the one man army against all my lovers and undefeated till date.
‘…you are on you own.’
‘Bro, that is fine, as long as you are supporting me,’ i tried to lighten up the mood.
‘Who is supporting you? I am approving him, cause he is going to ruin your chances of being the good sibling between us,’ he smiled, ‘I like it.’
In short he meant, Dai Amma is going to send me to hell… well, he is right.
The new year has began a new wave of excitement has come over and in the middle of the night, there at the threshold of the year changing… when the whole universe was shouted ‘Happy new year’… Jatinder screamed, ‘Eeeks…’
‘I did not do anything…’ shouted Ketan…and looked at Sunny and Rahul.
I could distinctly see Rahul trying to duck his way out of the mess…
In life there are few people you meet, some people you do not meet. Some people you meet and wish you never meet them again and then there are some people you meet, and wish you never meet them again and yet you meet them again and again and again. And then there are those who are biologically your relatives and you pray they never met you and also there is Ketan, who, Gods knows, why is still alive?