Sai and his Sister

Sai Srikar Valmiki’s sister, Meghana, was 2 years older to him. 

This age gap, though not much, made Sai think that he was at a big disadvantage. He thought that this age's superiority gave her power over him and that she could do anything with him without getting scolded by her parents.

Meghana thought the same about Sai. She thought that because he was her younger brother, she was responsible for whatever he did. She thought that if Sai did anything, their parents would scold her.

They fought with each other very much, just like siblings do, but never went to their parents to resolve their fight, because they thought they would be the one scolded.

Meghana was highly interested in science, whereas Sai lived in the world of books, Charlock Sholmes being his most favorite.

Meghana however hated reading fictitious books, and thought that they were the cause of the downfall of human intelligence.

“Sai, why do you like books so much?” Meghana asked Sai. She was very irritated that Sai had been reading the book for the past hour.

“Why do you care? This is a free country sister; I can like anything I want!” Sai sarcastically replied.

“Show me that book! Let’s see what is so interesting about it!” Meghana snatched the book from Sai’s hand.

Sai angrily jumped forward onto her to retrieve his book. Meghana pushed him and stood up holding the book high in the air.

“Meet Charlock Sholmes, a consulting detective, as he solves cases, saves his clients and traps murders. He is the greatest detective in the world,” Meghana read from the back cover. 

She threw the book back at his brother.

“Really? Why do you read this stuff? I don’t see anything useful you can get from that. Only sloppy reporters and inexperienced writers should read this silly book,” she said.

Sai angrily stormed out of the room.

Sai was very cross with his sister. He wanted to take revenge. 

“But how?” he thought. At that moment, an idea struck him. 

Just like in the book, he could simply make her do something wrong, that would look like an accident.

He started preparing his trap. It took him 2 days to do so. Very carefully and secretly he positioned the things in place.

His plan was to make his sister break a vase, through a chain reaction. He was very sure that his plan would succeed. 

On the third day, Sai waited until their parents slept. The sun was shining bright in the sky and it was 3 o’ clock in the afternoon.

Just 5 minutes after their parents went to sleep, Sai called out, “Akka, can you come here once?”

“Coming!” Meghana replied. She was in the kitchen. To come to the kids’ room, she had to come through a corridor. In the corridor, a small side rack was there. On the rack was the vase. 

Meghana slowly came through the corridor. But unfortunately fell in the trap.

Sai placed marbles on the floor. The corridor was narrow and the side rack was taking much of the space.

Meghana, in a hurry, did not see the marbles and slipped. She held the side rack as a reflex. But unfortunately, the side rack was not strong enough to support her weight. Her weight toppled the side rack and in turn shattered the vase. Meghana, too, fell with a thud.

Sai's plan had succeeded, and Meghana did not know how all this happened. She thought it was her fault.

Sai was standing on the other end of the corridor when all this was happening.

He felt a kind of happiness, but it did not last for long.

All this commotion woke their parents. His mother came running into the corridor, as if the earth was struck by an earthquake. Meghana, now upright, tried to pick up all the shards of the vase in an attempt to hide what she did, but then left it half way. 

Her mother saw the condition of the corridor; a broken vase on the floor and Meghana standing in the middle of the scene with a handful of the fragments in her arms. 

In spite of all this, her mother did not even ask what had happened. She went into the kitchen and came back with a broom and a small mug in her hand. She slowly bent down and collected all the broken parts against the wall and put them all in the mug.

She then gestured to Meghana to put the pieces in her hand into the mug. Meghana did so.

“Ma, actually I slipped! Ma, I was going to… going to fall. Ma, then caught this rack and it shook and the vase, ma. Ma, I am sorry, ma, I am really sorry!” Meghana’s voice trembled.

“It is ok dear! I know you wouldn’t do this on purpose,” Her mother calmed her down and hugged her. “Now don’t cry dear! Your tears would flood this room and we may not survive the disaster!” 

They both started laughing. Her father came out and asked what happened. When her mother told him all this his mouth fell. It was his mother’s last memory he had. He was very sad about it, but did not scold Meghana. After a few days, her father forgot everything about the vase and was cheerful again.

She stayed dull after the incident. She seldom came out of her room. 

Though Sai was not happy by his parent’s response to Meghana breaking the vase, he became happy when he understood that his sister felt guilty.

But after a few days this happiness turned into regret. Sai and his sister were extremely good friends. But after this incident, their play-time was gone. Slowly, Sai started feeling bored. And from this boredom rose regret. 

Every minute Sai wanted to confess to his sister that it was his fault not Meghana’s. but he couldn’t gather the courage needed for confession.

After a few days, he made an attempt to free the guilt in his heart.

He wrote a lengthy letter to his sister, stating the way he planned his trap and how she fell in it.

But while delivering the letter, he slipped and held on a table, toppling a glass full of water on the letter. 

His courage shattered.

But this sorrowful state of both Meghana and Sai changed due to Sai’s birthday, that was just a week away.

Meghana had planned an excellent birthday gift and when she looked at it 3 days before Sai’s birthday, all the guilt vanished from her heart. She eagerly completed making the gift and waited for the special day to arrive.

But Sai on the other hand did not cheer up. The thought that his sister would be sad on his birthday because of him, increased Sai’s guilt.

It was this very thought that gave him courage to admit his mistake. 

His birthday came and he waited to meet Meghana in private. Meghan too was waiting to meet him.

After the cake cutting was arranged by his parents, Sai sat in his room, thinking about how to tell Meghana about it.

Meghana went to his room, the present in her hand. 

“Sai!” She announced. “I want to give you something!”

Sai looked up and said, “I too want to tell you something!”

“Then you go first, birthday boy!”

“It was actually not you, but I, who broke the vase!” Sai ejaculated.

“What?” Meghana asked, stunned. This was not what she had expected.

“I had actually planned a trap for you. I placed marbles on the floor, and you slipped on it and broke the vase,” Sai felt extremely relieved and light after he said this.

It took time for Meghana to understand and digest what he had said.  She started laughing.

“You wanted to tell me this! You fool! Ok whatever, dumbass,” she laughed. “Here you go. I made a gift for you.” She handed Sai his present

Sai was taken aback; he had anticipated scolding from her. 

He reluctantly opened the gift wrapper and saw a paper-bound book in it. “The Mystery of Ramji Rao,” he read the title. “What is this he asked?” he asked, quite surprised.

“I wrote a suspense story, just for you. This will help you more, if you want to become a detective in future. That Charlock Sholmes doesn’t contain any real stuff. This contains facts and how the criminal investigation works. Okay?”

Sai started crying. He was overwhelmed by the present. He hugged his sister tightly.

“You idiot, you are crying for this?” His sister said mockingly. She wiped his tears and said, “Read this and tell me how it is. If you like it, I will write more like this, ok?”

Sai waved his head and smiled. “Actually, you know what, I would like to read some urban poetry or, like, some scary urban story. So next time write that, ok?”

“Be happy with what you got!” Meghna said. Both of them started laughing.