A little late in the night perhaps

My little brother

My brother was angry at me right from birth.
My elders told me to help him and not hold anything back.
And I trusted the elders.

One fine day he hit me.
I gave him a minor rap.

I was cautious after that.
But twice after that he tried to bite me.
I slapped him in front of everyone.
One of those days he said he was sorry and told everyone this won't happen again.

And then he bled me.
I suffered.
I couldn't hit him because the elders were watching.
He bled me, I suffered in silence, but that was not happiness enough for him.

Then a day came when he said he bled like crazy.
And I told him, "brother our wounds are the same".

But he had grown up by then, and he shouted from rooftops I couldn't kill him.
I told him I never wanted to.
But he never would believe me.
Because he never wanted to believe.

For a new elder that spat fire had come to support him.

He still bleeds me some times.
But I forgive him, because I suspect he has cancer, and got not much to live.

I love you Pakistan.

WC...Charlton..forgive me

I know Charlton has forgiven me.
Dammit...Charlton may not even remember this.
But I remember.

It was one of those things...one of those days. To make the long story short, we had four Houses in school that competed against each other. And it was football time. I was good in intel sort of boring events(speech, recitation, and etc.) , but nothing much physical, except football. And even in that, nothing too profound except being a goal keeper. Our House (Nehru) was the worst team. And I was Goal keeper #2.

And Charlton was #1. Boy!

And then there was this match. The whole school was watching. I watched from behind the goal post as Charlton was protecting the net well. And in the process, quashing my dreams of becoming India's answer to Lev Yashin.

I was a kid. I prayed for a chance. Like an answer to my prayers, my team mate did fall. And up he walked to me with a hand that was twisted. He had dislocated his left fist. I just looked at him without offering much support. I consoled him for a second and went in to that match. It was my chance, my only chance to play for my team. I rue that day.

Today I may do the same thing, thinking I'm a professional.

But every single time we will find our reasons to play.

i am a kid.