What is Love?

DEDICATED TO THE CHILDREN LIVING IN THE WAR TORN REGIONS OF THE WORLD...

“Ravi, you rascal, look what you have done! You have broken my remote control car! I am going to kill you! You rogue!” Raj picked up the broken car from the floor and yelled at his younger brother Ravi and rushed into their room to beat Ravi up for his wrongdoing. Ravi rushed out of the room with Raj in hot pursuit yelling at Ravi and asking him to stop. Ravi rushed into the kitchen, where their mother Vidya was busy preparing dinner for the family. Ravi rushed to her and hid behind her bringing Raj rushing after him to a sudden halt. Ravi, the nine-year-old younger son of Vidya, now in safe haven hiding behind his mother, yelled back at Raj, his brother and ten-year-old elder son of Vidya; ‘Bhaiya, you never let me play with you and your toys! I was just looking at the car and it fell from my hand broke, I didn’t do it on purpose!” Ravi was seething with anger and retaliated by pointing an accusing finger at Ravi and complaining to their mother Vidya, “Maa, look Ravi did it again. I had kept my birthday gift, the remote control car in my cupboard. He took it out and purposely broke it and left it on the living room’s floor! He is always breaking my toys and messing up with my things!” Vidya shifted her attention from her work to her two squabbling children and replied to Raj, “Raj, Ravi is your kid brother, can’t you take care of him and be more tolerant with him? Why both of you are quarreling with each other all the time?” Raj, in his fit of anger, yelled. “Maa, you always take Ravi’s side and scold me instead of scolding him for his pranks! I am not going to leave him today! I am going to hit him for what he has done today!” and rushed towards Ravi who was cowering behind Vidya. Vidya immediately intervened and dragged both her squabbling sons to the living room and pushed them into the sofa and yelled “Enough! Can’t the two of you stop fighting with each other? I am tired of your fights and complaints. I will not speak to both of you anymore and will ask your father to admit both of you in a residential school first thing tomorrow morning and we will never visit the two of you there, nor will we bring you home for vacations! Do you understand!” after making the hash judgemental announcement she rushed back to the kitchen.

At night, after dinner, when everyone had retired to their rooms, Ravi and Raj lay sleepless in their bed and they heard their parents in the adjacent room discuss their admission in the residential school which was in the neighbouring town. Raghav, their father said that in the morning after breakfast, he would take both the boys to the school for admission. Both Ravi and Raj were shocked to overhear their parents’ conversation and could not sleep the whole night. Raj could hear his younger brother sob in his bed. This made tears well in his eyes as he recalled what their mother had told them. They would be sent to the school never to come back home.

In the morning, Raghav and Vidya went to their children’s’ room to find them wide awake in their bed. On seeing their parents, Raj and Ravi rushed to them crying out, “Maa and Papa please don’t send us to the school. We don’t want to stay there! We want to stay with you! We will do whatever you ask us to do! Please Maa! Please, Papa!” Both the children clung to their parents and sobbed bitterly. Raghav and Vidya looked at each other and sat down on the bed while holding their sons in front of them. They wiped the tears from their face and Raghav said, “Look, children, even your mother and I will not be happy to send you away from home, but we are sad to see both of not love each other and constantly fight with each other. So, the only solution we can think of is to send you to school.” On hearing this Raj clung to his father and said, ‘Papa, I will do whatever you will tell me to do, please don’t send me away from home! Please!”  Vidya drew both her children close to her and said, “Children, all that we want is, you both love and take care of one another. You can stay at home with us on one condition, both of you will love each other. Raj will treat Ravi’s happiness and success as his own and so will Ravi, you will treat Raj’s happiness and success as your own. If we ever find you fighting with one another, your father and I will immediately send you to the residential school. I hope I am clear to both of you?” Vidya looked straight into her children’s eyes as if searching for their answer. Raj and Ravi looked at each other and said, “Maa, we promise, we will do what you have asked us to do. We will never fight with each other again!”

The following day was Thursday when Raj and Ravi used to bring their weekly school report home and constantly fight with each other on their performance. Vidya waited anxiously for her children’s return from school as she wanted to see how they would behave with each other. The doorbell rang and she opened the door for rather silent and somber-looking Raj and equally silent but happy Ravi enter the room. Before she could speak to them, Raj handed his weekly report to Vidya and said, “I have got fewer marks than Ravi, I hope he is happy.” He removed his bag from his shoulders and rushed to his room. Vidya was quite amazed to see her younger son Ravi, rush behind his elder brother screaming, “Bhaiya, how can I be happy when you are sad!”