Gentlemen, Be Wary of ‘Sisters’!

Traditionally, Rakshabandhan, which falls this year tomorrow, is a ceremony in which sisters tie an amulet on the wrists of their brothers. The main function of the ceremony is to provide raksha — protection from misfortune, slander, bad hair days and that sort of thing — for one’s sister, or someone deemed fraternal. But the surreptitious purpose of this bandhan is to essentially turn a male friend and acquaintance into ‘a brother’. Essentially, nipping any romantic, erotic or any in-between feelings from developing in the proverbial bud. From bud to baradari, one may say, if one likes to chuckle at such machinations.

Rakshabandhan, when applied in such Chanakyan terms, is actually an un-Valentine’s Day. And, to add insult to majboori, the newly anointed ‘brother’ pays a sororal tax of sorts for the rejection wrapped in promise of protection. No matter how much Rabindranath Tagore pitched Rakshabandhan as an occasion for Hindus and Muslims to show their ‘brotherly’ love for each other, the ceremony refuses to be exorcised of its function as a tool to combat the line, ‘Do you want to be my friend?’ (Rakshabandhan answer: But you are my brother!) So, while the protective charm remains intact, the context drastically changes. All men who wish not to be made a brother tomorrow, come up with an excuse and skip the tying of this particular knot.