Raksha Bandhan: So close no matter how far

Around the Hindu month of Shravan, it is impossible not to miss your brothers or sisters if they live away from you. Every shop, brand, TV channel, radio station and newspaper reminds you that it is the time of the year to celebrate the bond between a brother and sister.

Writer Sasha Gusain, 31, has been living away from her brother since they went to different boarding schools aged 12 and 13 respectively. Now, her brother is in the Merchant Navy and Gusain lives in Mumbai. Their first Raksha Bandhan apart wasn’t as hard on her as it is now.

“We were too young to realise things. It became difficult when I was much older, when I'd see other brothers and sisters and miss him,” she said.

Gusain posts a rakhi to her brother, who wears it when it reaches him and they make sure they chat over the phone on rakhi day. “I'm so programmed by now, that just the sight of rakhis hanging across stalls and shops makes me think of my brother. And it feels nice,” says Gusain.

Considering the festival was started for brothers to offer ‘raksha’ or protection to their sisters, does it hold relevance today, especially when sisters live away from brothers and don’t need them for “protection”. “Yes, it matters maybe not for the same reason as it was started for but it has grown into a lot more,” says Mussarat Kang whose brother is in the army.

“I feel that it matters even more now because everyone's so busy and the more avenues of communication we have, the lesser we talk,” says Gusain.

However, technology makes it easier. Ashish Malik who recently moved to Germany to pursue a PhD has promised his sister that once his rakhi reaches him, they will video-chat.

Pilot Priyanka Arora, 28, uses the internet to order rakhis, mithai and have them delivered to her brothers. But before those happened, she actually flew a plane across the US to meet her brothers on Rakhi day. “And now there are long emails and conference calls,” she says.

Criminology student Rashi Vidyasagar, 22, has been sending rakhis by post back home and has her cousins tie it for her brother for the past two years that she has been away from home. “It is difficult not to miss something you have been doing all your life,” says Vidyasagar who simply misses the act of tying the silken thread on her brother’s wrist. “But it is a tradition and each family makes their own tradition. Something that makes memories and Raksha Bandhan for me is laden with memories,” says Vidyasagar reiterating the importance of the festival.

The times have changed, the meaning of the festival has changed but it still remains a festival cherished amongst brothers and sisters. And as they say, distance only makes the heart grow fonder.