Forgotten Tale of Sacrifice, Love and Mothering
I've been visiting the rural areas of Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan for over a couple of months now in which I visited a single village for one whole month. Most of the kids attend the same school along with their siblings. A kid is enrolled in school at the age of six but are allowed to attend school even before that. Kids younger than the age of six attend school and learn from their environment and are not actually taught.
I adore sibling relation, be it of opposite sex or same sex. But the relation I found remarkable here was older sister and younger brother relationship. Most of these sibling pairs do not have much age difference between them. Typically it is two to four years. But what would stun you is how much the girl cares for her brother. She literally becomes a mother for her brother at such a tender age. She studies while she caters to the needs of her brother and even the little boy follows her everywhere she goes to. I find no words to describe that unadulterated love shared between them. She plays and takes him to play along with her and her friends. She studies and teaches something that she knows. She eats and feeds her brother. This is love. Shear love.
Beautiful to imagine? Wait. I then started visiting households and met siblings. There I met girls over the age of 15 and their younger brothers. While those girls dropped out of school after class 8, their older and younger brothers continued their education. She wouldn't be even allowed to play outside her house, citing that the age till she could play for is over. All she got to do all day is to sit at home, the safest place she can be in all her life. Is that it? The brother she mothered is the one who gets to decide what she ought to do and what she ought not. This hurt me a lot. While she fostered him all through his childhood, the brother after growing up is no grateful to his sister and in fact looks down on her, treats her as a possession of their house. This is how it is like to be a woman here.
Can this change at least after this generation? Can the brothers start recognizing and being grateful for their sisters while understanding how their freedom of movement and choice cannot be denied?
For all the brothers changing out there in the world, believe me you are no less than a hero.
I adore sibling relation, be it of opposite sex or same sex. But the relation I found remarkable here was older sister and younger brother relationship. Most of these sibling pairs do not have much age difference between them. Typically it is two to four years. But what would stun you is how much the girl cares for her brother. She literally becomes a mother for her brother at such a tender age. She studies while she caters to the needs of her brother and even the little boy follows her everywhere she goes to. I find no words to describe that unadulterated love shared between them. She plays and takes him to play along with her and her friends. She studies and teaches something that she knows. She eats and feeds her brother. This is love. Shear love.
Beautiful to imagine? Wait. I then started visiting households and met siblings. There I met girls over the age of 15 and their younger brothers. While those girls dropped out of school after class 8, their older and younger brothers continued their education. She wouldn't be even allowed to play outside her house, citing that the age till she could play for is over. All she got to do all day is to sit at home, the safest place she can be in all her life. Is that it? The brother she mothered is the one who gets to decide what she ought to do and what she ought not. This hurt me a lot. While she fostered him all through his childhood, the brother after growing up is no grateful to his sister and in fact looks down on her, treats her as a possession of their house. This is how it is like to be a woman here.
Can this change at least after this generation? Can the brothers start recognizing and being grateful for their sisters while understanding how their freedom of movement and choice cannot be denied?
For all the brothers changing out there in the world, believe me you are no less than a hero.
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