Just remembered this small thing. It's not everyday that you get to notice your kid brother grow up, he just does! and when you look back at pictures from 10 years ago, you realise you have come a long way...
When we both were kids (I am 5 years elder to my brother), I used to tell bedtime stories to my brother up until when my brother came into 5th grade. Funny stories, filled with jokes which I knew my brother found funny. For many years, night after night, I will tell him stories of Hari or Raju or Nainsukh and their daily lives.. The stories weren't necessarily stories but a string of slapstick jokes woven together. And by brother would every time burst out laughing on silly slapstick jokes with people slipping over spilled milk or trash on the road, random bicycle accidents and of rats fighting and what not. This went on for years and I really didn't have to change much content. Just a new name and a new way of narrating a slapstick story...
and my brother would gradually slip into sleep happily...
Until one day when I was telling him about how Haria fell on the road while riding his cycle over a banana peel, my brother didn't laugh. Instead he noted, "Dada your sense of humor is very crass". I paused for a second to take in what had just happened. All of a sudden my kid brother seemed to have grown. Grown out of the age he had forever been in, and grown into the next stage of life. I frantically tried to make up a new story line with new humor style, but he didn't laugh. I tried again with something else, but he still didn't find that funny enough. After a few tries he got bored and went to sleep.
And I lay in my bed realizing that I had just noticed a very simple, yet very profound thing. Things change. People change. Even your kid brother. And my brother was taking his next steps in this world. And with a smile on my face, I fell asleep... Happily..
When we both were kids (I am 5 years elder to my brother), I used to tell bedtime stories to my brother up until when my brother came into 5th grade. Funny stories, filled with jokes which I knew my brother found funny. For many years, night after night, I will tell him stories of Hari or Raju or Nainsukh and their daily lives.. The stories weren't necessarily stories but a string of slapstick jokes woven together. And by brother would every time burst out laughing on silly slapstick jokes with people slipping over spilled milk or trash on the road, random bicycle accidents and of rats fighting and what not. This went on for years and I really didn't have to change much content. Just a new name and a new way of narrating a slapstick story...
and my brother would gradually slip into sleep happily...
Until one day when I was telling him about how Haria fell on the road while riding his cycle over a banana peel, my brother didn't laugh. Instead he noted, "Dada your sense of humor is very crass". I paused for a second to take in what had just happened. All of a sudden my kid brother seemed to have grown. Grown out of the age he had forever been in, and grown into the next stage of life. I frantically tried to make up a new story line with new humor style, but he didn't laugh. I tried again with something else, but he still didn't find that funny enough. After a few tries he got bored and went to sleep.
And I lay in my bed realizing that I had just noticed a very simple, yet very profound thing. Things change. People change. Even your kid brother. And my brother was taking his next steps in this world. And with a smile on my face, I fell asleep... Happily..
