Those reminders of growing up..

Those reminders of growing up.. Though there are many things that remind us of our growing up days, here I am talking only about those reminders that are permanent - on our bodies! Looking at Mimi reminds me of my growing up days. I have a few marks of my own which push me into many memories of my own childhood.

There is this one slightly curved on my right wrist, a white mark of a nail bestowed to me by my then physically overpowering sister #2. Uh..Those numerous times we fought - each time she just pulled a fistful off of my head revealing my hair in between her fingers; each time we fought, she just came behind me and twisted my hand along with the life out of me, rendering me absolutely helpless; each time she tried to scratch and pinch me with her nails and came out with my skin in between her nails!!

If I stop right here and not tell what I did to her, she might just kill me with her fury - right from sitting in London. Guilty as charged, here's what I did... I chased her on a fine Sunday morning right through a curtain, behind which a bowl of super hot boiling water stood. And I saw it..I can still feel it now. The moment the water touched her through that curtain, from the shoulder to the arm - she tried to wipe the hot melting water on her hand with the other hand and splat went down, the skin that stripped off of her body. Those gruesome days of sisterhood! Oh..my dear sister - I hope you can forgive me. I hope you forgave me…

But all that is not for nothing. We turned into mature, understanding and very close sisters. Well, now I'd like to think of all that as love. Our love for each other shown as marks on our bodies! Like the marks that are forever on our bodies - we sisters are forever too.

GB has his own marks from his childhood, some accidents..some sisters...well many stories. And now it is Mimi. She still has time to start her sibling stories, but she is in the age and phase of having too many injuries ('owies' as she says). As of today the list of the owies that I remember goes like this.

1. The first one - On the day of her 3rd month, she rolled on her back for the first time - right over the bed, right on to the floor and twisted her ankle, which followed by scared mom and dad rushing to the hospital, X-rays etc.


2. The next I remember is a big one. Hot boiling water from the vaporizer fell on her thigh and the mark is still there. I hope it will vanish by the time she becomes a model. Oh..did I say that out loud - well that is what people say about one of the things she should be doing being a tall and brainier beauty.


3. She wore her silk lahenga to the temple and the threads at the bottom of the skirt cut deep into her toe, sending her bleeding.


4. She had scrapes, bruises and cuts many-a-number. But the recent one is a big one. I dropped her off at the school in the morning and I picked her up in the evening. I took her to the bath that evening and what do I see? A big bloody band-aid just below the knee and the pants are all bloodied knee down. Uh..my stomach churned. I was outraged. The person, who ever put the band-aid on that injury at school, could have at least informed me that she is hurt!! I was mad. I asked Mimi about where she got hurt and she says “at school”. The next morning when I called the school, the teacher says that she got hurt at home. How can she get hurt at home and I won't know? I was very angry. But Mimi had many versions of where she got hurt. "At the market (When did we go to a market!!" "in school when I was doing a job" etc. No one figured out when and where it happened. And wherever it happened, I don’t know why any one didn’t notice it! I felt like the whole world has turned against my baby and me. But anyway, the wound is almost healed now and she has a scar below the knee.
   
   So here it is - a new addition to the reminders of her growing up! Isn't it precious!