Mind of the Confounded Man

I have often wondered as to how obnoxious a brother I really was to my elder sister, while growing up. I mean if there was a sibling cruelty scale, where would I stand? I imagine quite high. During my summer and winter vacations from my boarding school, I spent considerable time and effort in troubling my sister in many ways; amongst which the most popular one was complaining to my mom about my sister dozing off while studying. In a family, gifted with the ability of being able to sleep off within minutes, my sister was always the superhero: she could have gotten up after a good night's sleep, brushed her teeth, sat with her steaming mug of coffee and her books and head-bangingly dozed off in seconds. In the world of today, with life's stresses, that superpower would be useful but back then it was a massive liability for her, especially during my vacations. As I would arrive at Kolkata station and be tightly hugged by my sister, I would try to decode whether the hug was out of

  My wife and I go for long walks through a silent and serene park to talk and unwind from the day that has been. We have promised not to take our phones on these walks as she especially treasures the peace and calm of the surroundings. Overall it is therapeutic and helps us cope with the times. That day the walk started a bit hurriedly, perhaps a desperate attempt by me to escape one of those bad days at work. In my hurry, I forgot to leave my phone behind so the promise shifted to not using it.  As we strolled through the calming silence of the park, I complained about life and people. My dear wife, who loves me to bits and wouldn't let any emotional harm ever come to me, ran her hand gently through my hair and said, "You know they are wrong" . Felt better. Just then I got a group video call from my parents and sister. Now we are a regular Bengali family whose cacophony would overpower the calm of the surroundings that we were in. I wanted to generally complain about th