Sibling Revelry

allsmiles | 05 February, 2005 05:33

Any wayward mention of the word 'siblings' these days, is bound to lead to a prolonged conversation about the most famous rags to riches story of our country. Also the most famous family feud. The media has also been giving it a lot of print and reels of news time dedicated to them and so many interpretations...blah blah. But these kinda stuff happens in all families. I guess the celebrity siblings have it a whole lot tougher than the rest of us.

"Sibling Rivalry" is the hostility between brothers and/or sisters. It could start with something as banal as pulling a sibling's hair or with the unwillingness to share a prized toy. Or much more serious cases such as the permanent enmity between grown up siblings. Nature too offers us a good number of examples. The biggest baby shark is said to devour all of his brothers and sisters within its mothers womb, ensuring that there is no competition for food resources once he is born. Also the first born eaglet kills all its siblings by pushing them out of the nest(which are usually made at great heights), to gain exclusive rights to food the mother gets. The underlying cause for this rivalry seems to stem from a sense of competition for the limited resources(food as in the case of sharks and eagles) in similar habitats.

Same is the case with human beings too. What with all the technological advances and progress that we invent innovative devices to save time. We still find ourselves more hardpressed for time. Time, attention, approval and appreciation from the parents are few things that children almost naturally expect from their parents. When there is so much shortage and the older child suddenly sees a lot of 'his/her' attention being diverted to the younger sibling. So a competition is in the making for both the siblings compete for their parents undivided attention. Which is probably why two siblings subsconciously chose different fields for study or areas of expertise. Sometimes the seeds of competition sown so early show up years later.

But then I am sure each one of us (who has a brother/sister) would be able to narrate at length the kind of bond we have shared with them. Right from the time as kid, the walk/bus ride to school, sharing stuff (albeit unwilling), fighing for a bigger share each time, keeping secrets for strategic advantages, petty complaints, meaningless quarrels, sticking out for them whenever a parent gives them a dressing down. These small little things seem to have a major impact during the growing up years. Of course there are times when all of us have cursed our siblings ...especially when they are a major pain in the neck. They do exactly what gets to you or and then conviniently get under your skin. Its like they were meant to do only that.

There definitely is some amount of rivalry, but then growing up wouldnt be as much fun would it? Its like a piece of cake tastes so much more better if we knew someone else also had evil designs on it. I know there have been famous exceptions but I am quite sure your siblings are most likely to be there for you and the ones you could very well count on in the hour of need.

As I write this my brother would be crossing the oceans(prolly getting hiccups :) right now), for a longish holiday. There definitely is going to be more noise once he is here. And yes, there would be lots of revelry too :)