Both of us were born free. Both of us were loved equally by our parents and perhaps being the first born she was more loved than me by my parents and relatives alike and was also more popular in the neighborhood. Both of us had a naughty and normal early childhood. Between us we never had any gender bias and I always expected her to climb trees with equal ease like my male friends and she too expected me to play "Ghar Ghar" with her and her female friends. But gradually things changed. She started being more reticent and mature. While I continued with my childish ways she started behaving more like my mother than my playmate. While she started admonishing me for playing beyond evening time with my friends, she herself would often get sermonised by my mother for her occasional attempts to relive the carefree childhood. No longer I got to see her wearing the frilly frocks that she used to wear till recently. She wouldn't be seen running around chasing a ball with gay abandon. Even if she did chase a ball, it would be an awkward attempt by her and the ball would appear to be teasingly beyond her reach. Very frequently she would be seen keeping to herself in a very irritable mood. The sudden change in her persona was beyond my comprehension and my curiosity to know what was wrong with her resulted in me getting branded as an intrusive pest. While the love between us remained unchanged there was a discernable change in the way we interacted and I drifted away from her to be more with my male friends beyond the four walls. While she silently fought her own battle and yet managed to evolve as a responsible adult I continued to be a child trapped in an adult body. While she found the daily dose of milk intolerable I continued to gorge on the same. While she thought it fit to lend a helping hand to my parents in managing the household even in the midst of her career blues, I continued with my carefree and naughty ways, exploring my new found adulthood, blissfully unaware of how the family was being run. While she was consulted by my parents on major family decisions, I was allowed to sleep till late in the morning after late night outing with my teenaged friends. Eventually she with her half spent childhood matured much earlier than me and assumed her responsibilities well in time. Whereas, I with my extended childhood continued experimenting with my adulthood at the cost of my parents discomfort. It was much later in life that I realised how much of a childhood did she sacrifice only because she was the elder sibling and probably also because she was born a girl. Guess same would have been the situation even if she was my younger sibling. Because boys rarely mature into a man and continue to be a pest for the women folk around.
A big salute to all Behnas of the world on this special day for being the more capable and stronger sibling and for putting up with pests like me😊