Next day morning when I got up I was on my bed. Before I realized what exactly happened the previous night, I could hear laughs from the hall. Though I felt extremely lazy to get up, I also felt curious on knowing what was so funny and thus I got up and came to hall only to notice the whole family (mom, dad, uncle, aunt and Karthik) sitting and watching my childhood videos. I thought of going back to bed silently when Karthik caught my hand and signaled me to sit near him. Many stories unfolded in front of me. Few sweet memories like Karthik teaching me how to slide on the handrail, saving me from trouble when I broke my knee by falling down from a tree etc. The day was pleasant and memorable and so were the days which followed it.
Once when we went to Shiva'b birthday party, and at the end of it I said Karthik, "nobody has ever gifted me anything till date, Shiva got so many he is so lucky" and the next week he got me a blue Parker pen, which I denied to accept but ended up in my shelf without my knowledge.
Karthik was crazy about his bike. He had a black splendor and he never allowed anyone to touch it. He used to clean it every Sunday for almost 2 hours and take care of it like a baby. Sometimes when he was very happy, he used to take me for a ride around my colony once or twice and I just loved it. One day he asked me if I wish to ride his bike. I was so surprised because I always wanted to do so. Then he took me to the nearby parking lot and taught me to ride a bike. After a month I started taking his bike without his help. I just loved the independence and sense of freedom and rush it gave me.
The party time was over and he entered 12th grade. He became very busy with his studies. He had loads and loads to study but he made sure that he spent the entire Sunday with me. I was alone most of the time and so I was forced to study too. But I started reading novels instead of my subject books and sometimes I would imagine me and Karthik to be the protagonists. The whole year went in dream for me but Karthik was completely into his books as always. We went to temple every single day and that was the habit which we promised to follow regularly from then on. Our exams were over and so was his entrance. He wrote many entrance exams and I hardly understood why he had to write so many exams. His results were out and he topped our school (1182/1200) just like he did in 10th grade. There were so many phone calls and he was so busy but he never looked happy or satisfied. I asked him what happened and he said me that his dream is IIT and till that happens he couldn't be relaxed. As usual I didn't understand why he was roasting himself and getting so tensed for getting inside one college. I said him, "Dad said there are many Engineering college but you are talking as if that is the only college in the whole world". He just smiled and said I'd understand its importance when I start giving me exams.
His entrance results were out and after some counselling and his trip to some cities and everything else one day he got me a Temptation (my 1st one) and asked me to promise him that I would work extremely hard and get very good marks in my 10th and 12th. I promised. Then he said me that he got in IIT Mumbai and that he wanted me to come as his junior even there. He looked so happy. My parents already knew it but never said me all those days. They thought it should be some kind of a surprise to me and Karthik wanted to see my reaction when he broke the news personally to me.
But I couldn't understand all that. All that I could get was that he was going to Mumbai and that means I had to be away from him for 4 years. It sounded impossible to me. I hit him. I hit Karthik as much as I could. Our whole family stood dumbstruck. I started crying and I ran inside my room and locked it. I never opened the door,I never came out no matter how many times people called me. I never ate anything for 2 days. I was just there crying all the time. He was going to some other place to study and in top of it he never said me at all till the last minute. I couldn't take it AT ALL. He left for Mumbai and I never even went to airport to say him goodbye. He was gone.
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