My family and I - Chapter 18

As you can imagine, I wasn’t too excited about sharing a room with Sona, especially with her in such a mood. But there was no work around, mum just wouldn’t budge.

“It’s either this room or the balcony, take your pick!” She had told me when I had tried to discuss the serious implications of leaving me in Sona’s room for the night.

Dinner was a quiet affair, nobody spoke much. The unsaid tension between Sona and I was killing all the attempts my poor dad was making to liven up the conversation.

Finally he gave up, “I’m going to watch TV.” He declared as he picked up his plate and marched into the living room. I followed silently. I never really understood why we had the “no-tv-while-eating” rule.

Sona and mum stayed put. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have stayed back and eavesdropped. If Sona told mum what had actually happened, I would get double the punishment doled out for lying.

I gobbled up my food quickly. Not only would I interrupt Sona and mum’s conversation, I would also have an opportunity to implement the Goodnight-sheet-folding law.

You see, this was not the first time Sona and I had to share a room. Everytime a relative came over, I was unceremoniously kicked out of my room into Sona’s and for a couple of days, we managed. We formed a number of little rules which helped us to live together without killing each other in the constricted space. One of them involved etching our names on the furniture so that we didn’t confuse which side of the bed was whose. Of course, mum wasn’t too happy about it.

Another one was the goodnight-sheet-folding law. As per the rules, the first person who came in to the room at night, only had to put on the goodnight and toss the bedsheet onto the other person’s bed and the other person had to do the actual job of folding the extra long bed sheet. Don’t ask me why the rule existed, it just did and both Sona and I followed it religiously and it was a BIG deal!

I dashed into the dining room and found Sona and mum deep in conversation. Mum glanced at me and even though she didn’t look like she was angry, she waved with her hand, a little shoo,go away kinds.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t about me. And honestly, Sona did look a little sad. Boy! I hoped it wasn’t because of me. I just wanted to fool around a little and I had gone and got her into trouble. I made my way to the room and hid behind the curtains trying to listen in on the conversation but I couldn’t hear much just some bits and pieces,

Sona: “Just horrid..”

Mum: “Don’t worry.. I’m..nothing.. happens..”

Sona:”Everytime.. Samrat.. Glass..”

 As soon as I heard “glass”I realised it was time for a confession! I snuck out of my hiding place and walked over to the table, my head hanging in shame.

“Ma, Sona didn’t throw the glass thing at me, it was an accident. ” I blurted out quickly before Sona could finish her version and make my confession seem like stale news.

“What????” My mum turned towards me, shocked.

It took a while for the tubelight in my head to go on,“You guys weren’t talking about that were you?”

A small smile had touched Sona’s face as she realised I had just committed a foot-in-the-mouth blunder. “No,” She said slowly, smirking at my misery.

“Pinkoo!” My mom admonsihed, “ You should be ashamed of yourself! Letting your sister take the blame!” I gulped, the impending lecture was bound to end in a punishment. I stole a pleading glance at Sona.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. Ok fine!  She said in a weird eye contact language that I guess siblings tend to make over the years.

 “Let her be ma, she’s an idiot.” She said to my mum.

My mum considered that, “Yes,” She said slowly, “That she is.”

I turned towards my mum, surprised. Hey! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind being called an idiot, if there’s something in it from me.

I felt my sister push me a little, “Now scram before she changes her mind.” She whispered.

I didn’t have to be told twice. I made my escape quietly and swiftly feeling quite happy. My big sister had saved me from getting into trouble. I felt like doing something nice for her.

You guessed right. The little angel I was, I put on the goodnight AND folded the sheets!

My family and I - Chapter 17

I tiptoed inside. Sona was sitting on the bed, with her back towards me.

“Let’s get one thing straight.” She started, “This here is my side of the bed and room. I don’t want any of your stuff in my territory. Get it??” She drew an imaginary line with her hand straight down the middle of the room.

I nodded, half a room was much better than what I had expected.

“Now get out..” she ordered.

“What?! Why?” I protested.

“I need to practice, I can’t do that with someone watching. Out!” She said plugging her guitar into the amplifier.

I didn’t think it would be wise of me to fight for staying there. Sona was good with the guitar, but after a few minutes my head started spinning with all the heavy metal guitaring she used to churn out.

I started to walk out of the room when Sona spoke to me again. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you did.” She warned me.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Maybe I could set it right, like, right now.

“Ummm Sona?” I stepped towards her side of the room gingerly.

She saw me moving towards her but made no attempt to take off her headphones, but as my foot crossed over the imaginary divider, she exclaimed, “Hey! What do you think you are doing?”

“Sorry..” I muttered, scrunching up my face.

She took off her headphones and regarded me for the longest time, “Go on..”

I cleared my throat, “I’m sorry about the whole Samrat episode.”

She put aside her guitar and glared at me, “Okay, so what were you trying to do there?”

I ran a nervous hand through my hair, “I don’t know, I was just trying to get out of a tricky situation.”

Sona stood up suddenly, forcing me to back into a corner. “How dare you! Do you know what you did? I should kill you for this!”

“Sona I’m sorry!” I said raising my arm while leaning backwards on the table behind me, anticipating a physical fight.

Unfortunately for me, I lost my balance and went crashing down, grabbing whatever I could to stop my fall. Of all the ruddy things I could grab, my hand hit a glass painting Sona had made. For a moment, I was afraid that it would fall on me. But after seeing the look on Sona’s face after the crash, I found myself wishing that it had!

“Mom!!!” Sona screamed loudly, “She’s already breaking my stuff!” She turned to face me, “I want you out of here, get it?”

Big tears rolled down my eyes as my mum walked in and inspected the sight. She saw me lying on the floor with the glass shattered around me and completely misinterpreted the situation.

“Sona!” My mom exclaimed, aghast. “Are you crazy! She could have been hurt!” My mum rushed to my side. “Are you alright Pinku?”

“Ma, this is all her fault!” Sona stood at the door, refusing to help me.

“That’s it Sona! You’re grounded for a month! No phone calls, no outings. Get it?” My mum said furiously.

“But I didn’t even touch her!” Sona protested.

“I don’t care. I don’t care what happened here, but this is not acceptable. Throwing things at each other? That too glass? U-N-A-C-C-E-P-T-A-B-L-E!!” My mum helped me out of the room.

I know I should have said something, but I wasn’t in the mood to be nice to Sona. She had been particularly nasty to me today. As though it was my fault that we had to share a room! I mean, I knew it was, but it wasn’t intentional.

 In fact, if I may admit it, it felt rather good getting her into trouble. Of course, I wasn’t going to let her be punished for a month, I’m not that evil. Maybe just for a week or two.

“Tell her!” Sona screamed at me as my mum lead me out.

“Sona! Stop harassing your sister! In fact I want you to apologize to her!” My mum pushed me in front of Sona and stood behind us, her arms crossed.

Okay, now mum was overdoing it! I saw the murderous look in Sona’s eyes and retreated immediately, “It wasn’t her fault ma!”

My mum shook her head, “You could learn something from Pinku Sona, she’s still trying to protect you!”

That was the worst thing my mom could have ever said!

My family and I - Chapter 16

Sona kind of erupted into a violent stream of abuses, most of them directed at me. How I had ruined her life and such other stuff. Her wrath soon turned towards my mum, but that didn’t last too long. One glance at my mom’s disapproving face and her angry charge changed into a desperate plea.

“You can’t be serious!”  She said throwing my stuff out.

“Hey!” I protested mildly. I could see this was going to blow up sky high, and I didn’t want to be in the line of fire. I made my voice heard and started picking up my things quietly.

“Ma! Come on! Anything but this!” Sona protested, hurling my clothes at me.

My mum watched in amusement as I scampered around grabbing my clothes.          

“The more you protest, the longer the punishment lasts.” My mum said, effectively stopping Sona in her tracks.

I could see Sona mentally compute the pros and cons of sustaining the fight.

“For how long?” Sona asked suspiciously, temporarily suspending her chucking activities.

My mum shrugged, “A month, two maybe. I haven’t really decided. But, it’s going to last till both of you start behaving like sisters.”

“What!?” I exclaimed despite myself. “That’s never going to happen!” I could see my future college life go down the drain. No sleepovers, no late night phone conversations, no late night texting! And I think I could safely cross out sneaking out at nights.

“Well, then you’re going to share a room forever.” My mum said simply.

“This isn’t fair! Dad!!!!” My sister stormed into my parent’s room.  I shook my head, that road was going to lead nowhere.

And I was right. Five minutes later, Sona walked out, shoulders slumped. “I hate you!” She screamed at me as she walked into what was now going to be our room and slammed the door shut.

“I hate you too!!” I yelled back.

I saw my mum cross her arms and shake her head negatively. Most probably our little stunt here had just convinced my mum that the punishment that she had doled out for us was justified.

To salvage a rapidly crumbling situation I screamed out, “But you’re still my sister so I love you!” I turned around and but on my best fake smile.

My mum smiled back, “Not enough sweetie,” She said ruffling my hair, “Not nearly enough.”

I sighed deeply and picked up my meager belongings which had been unceremoniously dumped outside. I gulped, opened the door and walked inside.

I had just entered the lion’s den.

My family and I - Chapter 15

Sona and I were on our best behavior the next day. We got up on time, for once we did not fight over who got the bathroom first and cleared up our respective rooms before we stepped out of the house. In our heads, one night of misbehavior could be cancelled out with one morning of a good one. But I was starting to believe it wasn’t the same for mum.

Speaking of mum, she was oddly indifferent to the change in our demeanor which only helped in freaking us out more. Sona and I made an unspoken pact. Until this matter brew over, we would look out for each other. That’s what sisters did right? Save each from their mother’s wrath.

This was actually quite tricky for me this time. Because I knew Sona was mad at me. And she wasn’t above playing tricks on me, despite our desperate situation. Who knew, under the pretext of saving me, she’d make me do something stupid. The last time Sona and I made such a pact, somehow I had got conned into doing all her chores.

Needless to say, I was on my guard.

Back in college, Neeta and I were greeted by some rather good news. Apparently, some other freshers had also come up with the master plan of sneaking out of their houses without informing their parents. But unlike my folks, some parents had picked up the phone and called one of his relatives who was a big shot police officer. Within an hour, cops broke up the party and sent everybody home. All the seniors too got in a whole lot of trouble. I guess the college authority thought there was some kind of mass ragging session happening.

Anyway, I was just glad that Sona had turned up and forced us to leave.  I’m sure we missed a bucket load of trouble.

For a change the seniors vs freshers ratio on the ground was better than the usual 10:1. So, all in all, college was relatively quiet. The anticipation of what was going to happen to me once I was back home, however was just too much to bear.

I reached home before Sona. I couldn’t bear the suspense anymore. Whatever it was that mom was scheming, I’d rather get it over with.. Soon!

My mum just smiled at me as I walked inside. Maybe she had decided to forgive us? After all, we were young and stupid and obviously, obviously we were going to do silly things. She could let this one go by, right?

A little hope surfaced. My mum’s demeanor was way too calm for it to be normal, I should have picked that up. But hope is a cruel emotion, it blinds all rationality. I dropped my guard and smiled back at her.

“College was sooo uneventful today.” I commented, breaking the ice.

“Uh huh..” mum acknowledged as she continued with her chores.

“So, how was your day?” I asked, encouraged by the lack of interest my mum was showing.

“Uneventful.. ” my mum commented indifferently.

I shrugged and made my way to my room. I opened the door and instantly a scream escaped my lips.

“Maaaa! Where is my stuff!!! I’ve been robbed.” I scampered out of the room, panic striken. From another corner of my house, I heard Sona scream, “What is all this junk doing in my room!!! Get it out!!! Pinku!! Get your trash out of my room!”

Oh no! she couldn’t have! She wouldn’t have! She shouldn’t have!

I stepped out slowly and faced my mom. The smirk on my mum’s face said it all.. That was our punishment. Sharing a room.