29 years. It took us 29 years

When my sister in law first moved in with us, she taught us, for the first time the meaning of empathy. Heck, the only word that I knew that ended with 'thy' was sympathy. She told me that if there's only one chair in the living room and there are two of us, we should be offering it to our sibling first. Ok, I understand doing that with my parents, or any elder member of the family, but with a sibling? Hell no. We fight for that chair and whoever survives gets the chair.

I guess that is what happens when you only have brothers as your siblings. My mom has 5 children. All boys. All having temper issues. I can only imagine how she brought us up. Its no surprise she takes daily medicine for high blood pressure.

One time, I remember I had a fight with my elder brother. It was 2 am in the morning. To save himself from me, he locked himself in the bathroom. I tied a rope around that bathroom door so that he wouldn't be able to open that door and then sprayed two entire bottles of insecticide in the bathroom through a small hole. He banged and begged me to open the door but I just laughed.... while crying.

Another time my brother had tied me up to a grill in our parking lot while I was only wearing my shorts. I was so embarrassed as each passerby looked at me and yet I couldn't do anything.

All of this seemed absolutely normal to me untill I started interacting with.... women. I mean, what the fuck? Don't you all have that urge of killing the other person? I guess not. I guess we were just too hot headed yet extremely courteous and polite with our relatives and guests. It's not even that we weren't good in studies or were 'loafers'. Four of us are qualified doctors. The fifth sibling is a student of Chartered accountancy but that didn't stop us from being absolute maniacs.

Surrounded by all of this, there was always that one regret in my heart that I kept to myself. That one place in my heart that longed for a sister. I have seen my friends' sisters doing so much for them. Sisters are intrinsically polite, calm and loving. I remember crying myself one night just because I didn't have a sister.

My parents have been together for 29 years and they raised 5 strong and capable boys. I guess the fifth one came into existence because they were hoping for a daughter lmao. I didn't ask them though.

Then my eldest brother got married. The firstborn that we had was also a boy. We were over the moon but still I didn't know that specific feeling of having a little girl in my arms. A sister. A daughter. A niece.

But then....

Yesterday.....

My other brother had his first child. And there she was. The tiniest little thing I have seen in my entire life. The cutest living being I've had the pleasure of meeting. A gift from God:

29 years. It took us 29 long years to have this at our home. I couldn't even pick her in my arms. I just couldn't. What if I had hurt her? I'm not too good with kids let alone infants. As Muslims, we believe that if God is happy with you, he gives you a daughter as a first born. I guess He was happy with my brother. So we named her: Ayzal (A gift from God)

There's nothing I wouldn't do for her. She's my child. My brother's blood. My blood. She even cries like a girl. That's probably the first time I've heard a female crying at our place. It's so different. So high pitched yet so soothing. I am not sure how to feel how to react. I'm just eternally grateful. If you've read this far, say a lot of prayers for our family.