Junya Athvani - 1

3 years after my brother Atul was born, my mom was pregnant again, and this time, I told her I wanted a sister, no matter what. She told me that such things are not under our control, etc,etc.

However, I was 6 years old then, and started thinking of creative ways in which I could indeed influence God to give me a sister. I used to be an avid reader of Amar Chitra Katha and I found out that Aditi is the name of the mother of all the Gods. So I started bribing God (at that age) in my daily prayers, every morning and every night, for almost all the 9 months saying that God should give me a sister and I will name her Aditi in honour of God's mom.

So when a sister was born, of course my joy knew no bounds and I felt complete, now I had a sis in addition to a mom, a dad, a bro. All relations in the family. When the day was decided for my sister's naming ceremony, my mom told me that our Atya (dad's sis) will decide the name, just as she did for me and my bro. That's when I went into panic mode, yeh toh maine socha hi nahi. The moment my Atya arrived at home, I got her to my room, she told me she had no time to play with me, and that she had to discuss the names she had so carefully researched with my parents for their approval. This is where I had my first debate (never knew I was setting the stage for many debating competitions in future) I put forth so many arguments on why my sis should be named Aditi that my Atya was completely bowled over but she said - "Baghu, ata tu zaa tayaar ho"Then she went and told my parents that this time the name was a total secret and she wasn't gonna discuss it with anyone.

My mom told her I was counting on the name being Aditi but it's ok, it didn't matter. I was crying, telling God that I am really Sorry, I can't keep the promise I made, my atya wasn't going to listen to me. I was shit scared as to what God would do to me as punishment. Then it was Atya's turn to pass the baby to the my other Atya and she had to whisper her name in her ear- She called out, " Prita, tu sangh, tujhya bahinachanaav kai" Gosh, that must have been one of the happiest moments of my life as I shyly said "ADITI",in full view of 100 odd family and friends.