The Lost Boys

I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother and I found all three. ~Author Unknown

It is a weird feeling when you come to hear that your elder brother is getting married. The first thing that struck me was “Damn! How did he grow up so fast?”. I remember a sizeable portion of my childhood and adolescent years spending with him, he was my cousin, but we were more like best friends. Friends around whom we grow up, play an essential part in giving us some memorable instances of our childhood, and whenever I think about some of my deeds and misdeeds while growing up, it has always been my brother who would be my partner in crime. We were probably the more Iyengar version of Joey and Chandler (I Joey and he Chandler, because Joey was younger to Chandler, and the similarity between the TV characters ended there)

We were quite notorious within the family, for our low grades, raunchy sense of humour and fetish for late night TV shows. He had been my architect for every skill (read vice) that a boy has to master to have a reputation among his peers, he had been my tutor on subjects ranging from “How to hold the bat” to “How to subtly check out a chick” (on which I’m still working) to “What breath freshener to have after consuming alcohol”, and I had been his staunch supporter for whatever he did. I praised him to the skies when he had a blink-and-miss role in a school play where his only line was to cry “Pitaji!” (Father) in anger, I even took sides with him when he was graded low scores for class test, and I’ve even admired him for doing the most lowly of jobs with utmost sincerity. There were times when I was even scoffed at for having a poor taste in looking upto someone who was traveling in the same boat as I was, but now even I am amazed at how much he has grown since having started his career. He started his career with a mediocre pay and within the next few years he had taken some giant strides in his professional life. Now at a very young age he has already toured quite a few exotic locations and rubbed shoulders with quite a few high flyers. (Honestly speaking, I still can’t figure how he did it!)

We very rarely get a chance to meet each other these days, even in the family gatherings I feel as if I’m in the midst of strangers searching for that friendly face. And when we do meet, our talk revolves around serious stuffs such as job, earnings and responsibilities, a far cry from all the usual stuff when a couple of testosterone- charged/ hormones raging teenagers would talk about. And with him getting married in another few months, he would have started a new innings with a new partner and I will be left all alone at the crease. We have come a long way from being two boys who used to play cricket in the scorching heat, breaking windows and flowerpots, waking up neighbours from their mid morning siesta, two boys who looked out for each other, two boys who used to ping each other whenever something naughty was running on TV. He may have grown on from being a boy to a man, but I am still stuck somewhere in between, refusing to grow up, hating to have responsibilities, craving to remain that pimple- faced boy who loved hanging out with his brother, his best bud, indulging in shenanigans. Those days are gone, and the Lost Boys will remain lost…..

Bro, if by accident you are reading this, I wish you a great life ahead, hope you go for a sensible and pretty wife who wont stop you from hanging out occasionally with me, and thanks for all the cool stuffs you have taught me over the years, you shall remain my Gurucool. I have kept out the other little but vital details that were a part of our childhood, and your escapades in the Rainbow Nation shall remain a secret, so breathe easy.