The Chronicles of the youngest Child - Part 1

Definitely still craving sweet! Chocolate cake after a long flight 

As a child my relation with my older brother was always special. Since I was the last child and he was closest to my age, eight years older than me, I usually spent a lot of time with him. But, like most brothers, he was annoying and loved teasing and harassing me. 

Those days, in the 80’s, in our tiny suburban apartment in Mumbai,  we spent most of our time as a family in the living room since we had our Television there. That TV was our lifeline. It connected us to everything that the world had to offer us in terms of movies, ads, serials, music and cartoons. It was the magic box that gave us exposure to culture and ways of living elsewhere. Through it we had  glimpses of all the other languages present in India and in the world, till then only mentioned in our text books. We hadn’t had the TV in our lives for decades and so it remained a very novel tool for us.

One day, when my brother was around seventeen years old, we were in our living room. We were both fighting as usual. Over something stupid surely, when suddenly, I noticed the ad for a new chocolate playing on the TV.  As usual the idiot box was switched on with no real reason or audience. 

This chocolate was different from the regular Five Star or Dairy Milk chocolates that had been around in our lives till then. The packaging was also very different. It was a bar with a brown wrapper on which stood the sketch of a beautiful black cat with a long twisted tail. Its name was Parry’s. Back then, being a child meant  I never had any money unless I saved it  myself after probably begging my family for some short change here and there. Our parents never spent on any luxuries in the household. So just asking for a chocolate that I had seen on TV would never pass with them. I tried another strategy.

I asked my brother to watch the advertisement the next time it was aired. Then I told him that I was sure it was delicious and that I would do anything to taste it. My plan worked. My brother blurted out, “why don’t you sit in the Lotus pose for thirty minutes without a break?, I will buy it for you if you succeed.” I shrieked, “Do you promise?” and he said, “Yes!”. 

I was elated, however, I knew my brother well enough. If he witnessed that I was trying to do the challenge, he would do everything possible to not allow me to reach the 30 minutes. I could always do it without him around, but he would never believe me and get out of what he had promised. The chocolate cost 4 rupees. Those days, that was a lot of money.

I set my plan in action. I decided to do the challenge on the Sunday evening at the same time as a serial called Quiz Time was aired. My brother was usually always back home by that time and I knew everyone at home would be watching the TV together. 

On the said Sunday, I looked at the clock exactly at 9pm and stated “ It’s 9 o’clock now. Quiz Time will start.” At the same moment, I sat exactly opposite the living room clock. I put myself into the Lotus Pose quickly and covered my legs with my dress. Anyway, we sat on the floor in a cross-legged position several times a day. So no one guessed that I had gone one level up.

My brother and my mother were in the room with me. All of us were majorly concentrated on the show. Or at least, I pretended to be. Sitting there, I started to feel drops of sweat run down my spine. All of the nerves in my legs were begging me to get out of that painful pose. But, I was determined. I knew that it was now or never. At  exactly 9:30, I lifted the hem of my dress and showed my mother and my brother my pose. The look on my brother’s face was priceless. I smiled and said “ I want my chocolate tomorrow”. He was not very happy but he knew he couldn’t get out of the situation.

The next evening, shop aunty opened the shutter after the afternoon siesta break. I was all excited. I ran into the shop with my brother behind me. I pointed at the Cat chocolate that lay under the thick glass-topped drawer. I can still see her hand opening that vent and going through it to get to the chocolate. My brother paid her the money and quickly took it for closer inspection. He said, “ok, so this is the one you want”, I had my biggest smile as I looked up towards him. Alas, before I knew what had happened, he had torn open the wrapper, removed the foil surrounding the bar and bitten off half of the chocolate in one large bite. He then passed the remaining to me, while biting into my prize.

I was livid but I knew it was now pointless to argue with him. I took the chocolate quickly and gratefully ate one small piece, pushing against my tears. He had walked away and I was now already busy planning how to keep the rest of the bar from melting. My goal was to eat it over the next two days, piece by piece. I also had to hide it from everyone at home. Now, I had a new challenge to overcome.

like what you just read? 

Find Part 2 here https://lekhawrites.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-chronicles-of-youngest-child-part-2.html

Find Part 3 here https://lekhawrites.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-chronicles-of-youngest-child-part-3.html