Big Boo.

She is Harichandran's female version. I lie at the drop of a hat. She keeps things safely. I am accident-prone and always break or lose things. So Mom and Dad always believe her and take her side every time. It’s the price you pay for lying. No one believes you even at the rare times you tell the truth. So even when Miss. Perfect rarely made a mistake, she was easily forgiven without even a reprimand while I had to go through a painful lecture of how to be responsible and how money does nt grow on trees. So this one time we had a fight. I wanted to read her secret diary that she kept in a locked cupboard. The lower half of the cupboard shelves was mine (we took turns and after a couple of months, I get the upper half!) and I wanted to open the lock. But the number lock was on my way and she would nt tell me the combination. Suddenly I remembered that there was a small key with the 3-digit number to open the lock was kept in the top shelf of the living room showcase. By a freaky coincidence, She remembered it the same moment and we both rushed to the hall from our room. I pulled a chair and stood on it and tried to take the key while she climbed on the same chair and tried to grab the key from my hands.

CRACK! A noise and the chair bends and we both fall down. To my horror, the aluminum-folding chair had cleanly broken. It was one of the four chairs we had bought in New Delhi a year back for Rs.100 each and hauled it with us to our hometown traveling for more than 24 hours and 14 pieces of luggage. I knew I was as good as dead. I have broken more than my share of things at the house but nothing as "valuable" and as "precious" as this! ("Comfortable, no? We bought it in Delhi for so cheap!" - Priceless) And the fact that She also had a hand in this is not going to affect the outcome one bit as She is the good one. She will escape. As a 10 year old, I could think of only one thing - to run away from home. As if to seal my fate, She says, "Wait till Dad comes home from office. You are gone!" I quiver and do what every self-respecting girl would do in that situation. Beg her! "Please, don’t tell Dad! He would kill me. Especially if someone has told him how to do his job at office today. Please don’t tell him I did it." She does nt reply. I go and sulk in my room and then go to sleep. Forget homework, I am not going to be alive tomorrow to go to school anyway! I get up and Dad is already home and She had the first say. Oh God, I ve dug a deeper hole for myself! Nothing happens when Dad sees me. Nothing. Everything seems normal. I am confused. Before I open my mouth to say "Its all her mistake", She silences me with a look and we both go out of Dads earshot and She tells me that she has saved my ass this time and to be eternally thankful for it and to go and do my homework. Then Mom tells me, "Poor She. She had stood on the chair and it broke. Thankfully nothing happened to her. Where were you while this happened anyway?" I am dumbstruck. Though I am furious that She escaped without a scrape, I am thankful to her deep down.

And that was nt the only time She had saved my skin. She has always been there for me and without her, my life would nt have been this easy.

Thank you Sister for everything you have done for me and have a wonderful Birthday. This post is for you! :)