In the train - on way back home. Met my brother after years. Don't like calling him my cousin - more like a brother. But that is odd. For it is not that I've been too closely in touch with him all this while in life. Still the bond remains.
Perhaps it is this shared common bond that makes a difference. Youngest of two sisters. Always protected and provided for. Physically too - we resemble a lot - both of us are have a slender built. And an intellectual (you may call it bookish) bent.
But that is not the point. The point is about relationships. What defines a relationship? Is it continuity of contact? Is it kinship? Is it shared meaning and purpose? Is it simply a bond?
Memories go back to childhood when we both spent a summer together after our sacred thread ceremony.
Then we grew up - each in different cities and on a different course in life.
A couple of years ago, he and I were in Bombay - but we hardly ever met. Our non meeting was punctuated by occasional visit of elders and then we would bump into each other. And this time he is back for a while after 2 yrs. in the U.S. And we did met - a while ago i.e.,. He married before leaving offshore - so it was the three of us.
It was as if life is still. An aspect of growing up that I missed. Maybe it would have been lovely to have spent more time together while growing up. Or maybe kept in regular touch thereafter. Does it really matter? I don't know. Yet, I know I like him and he likes me. And when we met, it was like meeting someone my own.
So what then defines a relationship? I am no longer any close to an answer than I was when I'd started off.
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