Every year, I write a letter to my brother on his birthday sharing my few words of wisdom and showing my appreciation for things he has accomplished. This post is a compilation of all those letters.
2021
Untangle & Uncover - Loosing and Finding Your Uniqueness
Dear Brother,
Happy Birthday! It's that special day once again when I sit behind my desk with a blank screen that lurks at me. I am supposed to write you words of wisdom since I have taken this responsibility voluntarily. To guide you to the best of my ability has always been a priority but things have not materialized the way they were supposed to. Sometimes, it was fault on our end and sometimes we lucked out hard time.
There are always new beginnings though. What's important is to realize what went wrong, what are the things you could have controlled and what could have been done differently. You see the circumstances we are in where you are constantly being told to fit yourself to this predefined mold. The society is chipping away your dreams which it doesn't understand. You are told to do one thing which will make you fit better while your heart clings to something else that you value and we are unable to do anything about it. I feel so helpless, even ashamed sometimes, for not being able to support you through.
2020
Into The Real World
Dear brother,
Happy birthday! I am sitting here once again, a year hence, away from you and home and writing this letter to tell you few things in the hope that they would help you navigate the adult life better. I think this is probably the fourth year I am doing this, thus I can safely that this letter series is in the midst of becoming a tradition - a routine I would very much like to follow. Now that you have graduated out of college, you can clearly feel the stark difference between the two sides of the college wall.
2019
A Brief Guide to Adult Life
Dear Brother,
Today, you crossed another milestone of life. 21 years! How do you feel? Well, I have been through that phase and honestly I don't remember much how I felt. Wish I could have documented it. I wish I could document every bit of my life, its bitter-sweet symphony, the achievements, the failures, the struggles, happiness, grief, wonder, imagination, observation, the reverie, the nostalgia, friendships and relationships and everything I have felt - kind of a log of my journey of traversing through adulthood. Wouldn't it be awesome if someone just handed us a definite guide, the rules to abide by, the way to act and an all around curriculum which could have led sense to everything we go through?
2018
A Sport Called Passion
Dear Brother,
Do you remember the last post I wrote for you on your birthday? It was about the persistance of light amidst the darkness. I had seen it saved offline on your laptop so I suppose you embraced the lesson I intended to provide.
Well here I am again, on your next birthday to tell you about another life lesson I've learnt through my experience. It's about passion and how chasing it is as much of a sport as the ones you see on television.
Here's something I want you to see first -