Kathmandu:

Oh, you don’t have any brother? That is so sad.”

I have been hearing this remark from my childhood. My relatives, especially the old ones, always show how sorry they are that we (three sisters) have no brother. I am surprised that even in this age and era there exist people who pity us because we are ‘brother-less’. But as far as we are concerned, it is absolutely wonderful having sisters.

The ancient stories tell of the love between brothers — the relation between Lord Ram and his brothers in the Ramayana, and the camaraderie shared by the Pandavas of the Mahabharata. And I have always wondered why no story has been written about the love that sisters share.

I feel that the best thing about having sisters is that you can communicate with each other freely on any subject. Whenever I have a problem, I immediately run to my Didi. With two sisters around me, I never feel alone. I can proudly say that my sisters are my best friends.

But I also admit that it is not all rosy all the time. I am the middle sister and as such have not had much life of my own. I have been living a dual life — sometimes as the ‘big’ sister, and sometimes as the younger one. But I have no complaints because this way I can relate to the feeling of both my sisters.

We have our own share of fights. We have huge fights, especially over our clothing. It is always the case of first come, first chance whenever someone buys a new outfit. And it gets even more irritating when, after all the hard work of washing and ironing, your sister comes out of her room wearing the very same clothes you had spent so much time and hard work getting it ready. Sometimes when vocal fights don’t seem to be going anywhere, we end up turning our room into a WWE arena. And no matter whose fault, it is always the little one who wins.

We have this love-hate relationship but no matter how much we quarrel, at the end of the day, we can not survive without talking to one another. So now when anybody starts pitying us, I just give them a smile and think, “What do these people know?”