Rivals for Life

Pandu and Rangu
siblings from the same womb
yet so different from each other...

Rangu, the younger one
was always engaged
in pleasing others

He saw life as a competition
wanted to be loved
cared and regarded
more than brother

So there he was
tailing aunts on shopping sprees
seeing off relatives
at rail stations and airports
and it even looked that
he had an edge over brother in
the self proclaimed popularity contest

Years later though
Rangu was bitter...
felt he was used
by the people from whom
he expected lifelong loyalty

Pandu on the other hand

participated with relatives

only in the activities

he liked, enjoyed..

he had no expectations

whether from relatives or friends
after all, he had done his own thing
nothing to please or
get something in return...

Many years passed
both of them married
the brothers came
face to face
less and less...

Pandu found that
on his visits to parents
Ranga was never there...

he met him at the odd wedding 

and that was about it,,,

Yet, finally the brothers met again
on occasion of dad's illness
sharing space in same house
for few days when old wounds
reopened, hostilities rekindled...

In a verbal spat  though
Pandu was shocked
by words of sibling...
he knew he wasn't liked
but not that he was hated so much!

"I hate everything about you"
your singing, your very personality
your pseudo meditation!" quipped Rangu
"How I planned meticulously
stayed away when you visited
and now I am forced to breathe
the same polluted air, you breathe!"

Pandu was shaken, hadn't reckoned
that so much of animosity
venom, was building against him
all his hope of a patch up
at least a working relationship
was dashed, broken to a million pieces

It was now clear, that they were destined
to be rivals , a rivalry doomed
to be carried to their graves...