The Chronicles of the youngest Child - Part 5

 

In my teens, everyone in our lives had known or knew some sort of corporal punishment. Having grown up with an older sister and two older brothers, I was no stranger to this. However, getting pinched, smacked, kicked didn't make me any less naughty than I was. And no punishment was big enough for me to feel like a victim for more than an hour. I was having too much fun enjoying my childhood and school days.

Back then my older sister was studying to be a teacher. She had to submit a very important assignment. Funnily enough, this assignment was to bring to light how children were being beaten at school and home and what effects this was having on children and on society in general. She had borrowed a camera from someone and wanted to take photographs portraying a scene of this 'violence' for her assignment. Since the camera had a reel inside and she probably had negotiated permission to use a limited number of photos with the person who owned the camera, she was determined to get the shots right. 

I remember her asking me and our brother to participate in the 'experiment'. My brother was younger to her but older to me. My sister repeated how important it was that we get serious when she takes the photos. Our home was very small with very little furniture. We set up a tiny teapoy (coffee table) near the door and decided that was the best angle to get clear and bright pictures. The plan was to portray a 13 year old girl doing her homework and her older brother coming to talk to her and then argue with her. The next scene was the 'action' scene where the older brother would beat the girl. My sister was of course hoping that we would capture the whole scenario with four images. 

Now wanting something and getting two young people to act it out is not the same thing. Even though the scene was something that probably happened every other day between us, my brother and I couldn't get serious about it. We kept breaking into giggles as we envisaged the scene to be enacted. My brother had awkward pauses wondering how to place his body correctly in the frame. He kept uttering "now what?" and I kept saying "What's so difficult? Do like you always do! Treat me like I'm a football which you are about to kick". 

Looking back, the whole scenario was so funny and we both had a very harassed sister to deal with. She kept asking us to pose without actually taking the photos. She had to make sure each photo taken was worth it as developing a photo those days cost so much money. And here we were, not listening to her and getting flustered doing the role play again and again. 

In the end, her assignment was successful and we laughed as we looked at the photos printed out a couple of weeks later. The theme was violence, but to both me and my brother they looked purely comical. This was one example of our sibling fights which were more comical than painful when I look back.