Written by: Ambira Pradhan - 24009, Grade XI
Posted on: 08 November, 2022
This year in 2079 Bhai Tika was quite different from other years. Firstly ma was not here because she has gone to complete her PhD. Secondly, my maternal side had no Tihar due to the demise of a relative. And I usually celebrate by tika at my maternal side. Generally in Bhai Tika we put tika to brothers. I don't have a brother so I do pooja to my younger sister and it has been more than a decade that I have been doing so. Most people with just sisters do not do puja to each other and simply say they don’t have a brother but for me while growing Ma and Ba said it is almost the same thing and just not having a brother does not mean you can’t do puja to your sister and my ma wants me to continue this when me and my sister are older.
Since my maternal family had no Tihar, we were going to celebrate Bhai Tika on my paternal side at my nunu's house (father's sister). On the day of Bhai Tika I woke up early in the morning, took a bath and wore a kurta surwal. My father, my younger sister and I got ready and we headed towards nunu's house. We went to pick up my grandfather and grandmother on the way.
Then after reaching nunu's we started making preparations for puja and we started shortly after. During the puja it was very windy and the wind kept blowing the candle. It was fun doing the puja and continuing the tradition.
After the puja we had lunch prepared by nunu and it was delicious and lovely. All of us sat down and started talking. While everyone was talking my sister had brought some homework over to do and I helped her in the meantime. Eventually I got bored so I went and roamed around the balcony. Then as my boredom increased I went to the terrace upstairs, sat on a swing and played music while moving back and forth while having a sweet.
I spent around 10-15 minutes there and went downstairs and helped my sister again for a bit. Then it was around tea time and nunu asked everybody if they wanted a tea or coffee I said I would take the coffee and said to nunu to specifically strain the milk she laughed it off and said “Batthi” to me which I found weird since I am allergic to tar (the cream layer that is formed on top after heating milk). I had the coffee, assisted my sister for some time and she insisted on taking some pics of both of us before leaving. So, my sister and I had a couple of photo sessions before bidding our goodbyes to nunu and family. We then dropped off aaja and aaji to their house and we stayed there for a couple of minutes and then left for our home. After arriving home sweet home we had some sel rotis which were made by baba (they were super crunchy and tasty). We just relaxed, talked for some time with mamu and called it a night.
