Raj accompanied Jyoti didi whenever she visited our house.
This rascal, Raj, always stayed by didi. I felt jealous and angry.
Jyoti didi is my sister, not his sister. She is only his sister-in-law. That's all.
I thought.
Every time Raj visited our house, he disturbed me and irritated me.
He did the stuff that I hated the most. He intentionally collided with me, and he never apologized.
He always tried to pull my leg. He pranked me. He cracked jokes and turned me into a laughingstock in front of everybody.
Someday, I'll give him a hard slap on both his cheeks, I said to myself.
However, I could not do anything because he was the younger brother of Jiju.
I just remained helpless, watching his mischief.
In my mind, every day I made a plan to teach him.
One day I'll slap him in front of everybody so hard that his entire jaw of teeth would uproot, and he would remain toothless.
And he becomes a stammerer. He starts repeating the same word hundreds of times. Aaa… Aaa… While making plans, I laughed alone.
The behavior of Raj embarrassed me a lot. My brain went out of control, and I got angry.
Again, I had no alternative other than to stand silent and stretch my head.
If I could become a boy, I'd teach him a good lesson. He would never dare to do any such stuff in his entire life. He would always remember me, I thought.
Raj mimicked every act I did. He showed my acts in front of everybody when they gathered.
'Do you know what Su has done today? Do you know what Su showed yesterday?' And blah and blah.
Everybody started laughing at his mimicry, and I was the scapegoat of his comedy drama.
'Mad, crack, half-brain…' I murmured, getting angry.
Whenever Raj got an opportunity, he pulled my leg.
He never missed any chance to make me irritated.
'What is this, Su?' Raj asked me, touching my hair. 'Dog's tail or horse's tail?' He mocked me.
'Don't touch my hair,' I said with rage.
I loved my hairstyle very much, and if somebody made fun of it, nobody could stop me.
Raj pulled my hair and ran.
'You RASCAL,' I yelled. 'You've got to pay for this.'
I chased him.
He ran so fast that I could not catch him.
I chased Raj the whole day, but I could not catch him.
Then, to take revenge against him, I kept his favorite red T-shirt secretly and later buried it in the backyard.
The next day, Raj searched for his red T-shirt desperately, but he didn't find it.
'Do you have my red T-shirt, aunty?'
'Do you have my red T-shirt, uncle?'
Raj asked every member of our house desperately, but nobody helped him find his lost red T-shirt.
I enjoyed his helplessness.
Raj was upset the whole day. He didn't smile. He didn't talk. He didn't even eat anything.
Unfortunately, nobody found his favorite red T-shirt.
Poor lad! I thought, delighted.
Now, how does it feel, huh?
When I kept a short hairstyle, Raj started teasing me again.
'Hey, hey… Su is a boy… Su is a boy.'
The more I got embarrassed, the more he teased me.
Immediately, I changed my hairstyle and kept a long hairstyle.
Again, Raj had a problem.
"Wow, Su, you're not a girl."
"Shut up!" I said angrily.
"I swear you're looking exactly like our neighborhood Mrs. Sharma aunty. She has the same long hairstyle as you."
"What's your problem, you GundaRaj? Whether I keep a long hairstyle or short, it's my own choice."
"Oho, Su got angry."
"You mind your business."
"Yeah, I'm doing my business."
"What?"
Then what? I chased him, and he ran. Our dog-cat fights continued, non-stop.
Whenever I played with my friends, Raj also joined us.
'Here comes Gunda Raj to disturb me,' I murmured.
'Guys, don't allow him to play with us,' I instructed my friends.
Before Raj gave his pleasantries to my friends, I stopped him.
'You're not allowed to play with us,' I said roughly.
'Why?' Raj asked.
'An outsider is not allowed.'
'What?'
'Yes.'
Raj looked towards my friends.
'Am I an outsider? Am I not your friend? What do you say, guys?'
Raj asked my friends emotionally. He spelled the black magic of his words on them.
All my friends remained silent.
Now? What do you do, you rascal? I thought gleefully.
However, something different happened.
'No, you're not an outsider. You're our friend,' one of my friends said, looking at me strangely.
Then all followed the same chorus.
'What?' I shouted.
I was shocked.
'I hate you all.'
What does he think of himself?
I got very angry.
They all played, and I sat alone, looking at them playing.