Lobo Lobo’s sisters

Lobo Lobo stood at my doorstep 10 colourful ornate rakhis adorned his armldquoLobo Lobo I know today is Raksha Bandhan but why so many rakhis spreading all the way from your wrist till your elbowrdquoldquoArre Dikuna men wot to tell you chhe you wont believe onlyrdquoldquoSo try merdquo I challengedldquoDikuna men I have ten sisters uuufffrdquoldquoWow thatrsquos a lot of uhm uhrdquoldquoYes too many women in one family and all of dem have landed up to tie rakhisrdquoldquoYou have ten sisters and how many brothersrdquoldquoJust me menhellipjust me so Irsquom fully overwhelmed men See our mudder and fadder kept trying for a boy but dey were fatafat only having de girls My sasses are Hyacinth Petunia Blossom Rose Pansy Daisy Dahlia Violet Ivy and Magnoliamdashall named after blinking flaars men Dey kept trying for a boyhellip dey were about to give up My mom Rapunzel told my dad Tchaikovsky lsquoChalo Tchai bas now Irsquom toh tiredrsquo but dey gave one last shot and voilagravehellip I popped out men All of us tirteen people lived in a small two bedroom house in Orlem Malad Full day kitpit in my ears gossipshossiphellip den tankfully one by one dey all left de home and I finally got some peace and quietrdquoldquoWhat do they all do Lobo Lobordquo I asked fascinated that my cable technician had 10 sistersldquoSo Bossie dey do very different different tingsmdashde oldest is Hyacinth shersquos a hairdressercummakeup artiste In de rsquo70s she was in very big demand for Bollywood in fact she became Hema Malinirsquos personal hair dresser Arre in 1975 she was de first hairdrsseer who went to Afghanistan Hemaji took her for Dharmatma den she came back to India for Sholay One year she spent in de shoot and dat Garam Dharam kept messing up her hair men Fun became Dis year only dey celebrated 45 years of de blockbuster Dream Girl Hema maam took Hyacinth to de Sholay celebration partyndash till now Hyacinth does Hemajirsquos makeup and hair for dat Kent Water Purifer ads and allrdquoldquoYou must be so proud Lobo LobordquoldquoNo mad o wot she irritates only she used to practice her makeup on me when we were kids I had lipstick all over my lips and dat whachyoucall foundation on my face Chhe Everyone would make fun of merdquoldquoAnd the others sisters what do they dordquoldquoSee foe of dem are homemakers dey quietly got married and one two went to de Gulf and one two our side only dey live But our Violet my fifth number saas is an ex hockey player men she was in de team for Asian Games de fust ladies team dey won de Bronze Dey were de fust Chak De team menhellip she was de captain and centre forward she ran away and got married to de captain of de menrsquos volleyball team Jarnail Singh My parents were damn bald ragged wid dem lsquohow she can marry outside de communityrsquo but ever since dere son young Bartholemew Surjit Singh Bindra was born all was forgiven Tree of de girld are spinsters men dey take care of my parents in Goa and de last one just above me my favourite Petunia she is a air hostess menrdquoldquoSo Lobo Lobo Irsquom guessing theyrsquove all come to your home to tie rakhis and remind you that you are their protectorrdquoldquoAlso Dikuna men dey all are demanding some moolah problem became yardquoldquoBut Lobo Lobo it is tradition to give your sisters something on Raksha Bandhan rightrdquoldquoArrey Irsquom broke But I gave dem all sumthingrdquoldquoWhatrdquo I asked curiouslyldquoOne years cable subscription plus one dish antennahellip FreerdquoRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright photographer and traveller Reach him at rahuldacunhamiddaycom