Sorry for that informal phrase, but that summed up my dismay. In my over enthusiasm, I had made 5 glasses of juice. "I made one for her also" I said. She had gone abroad to study more than three years back and it still hadn't sunk in. "Just 4 more months" my mother called back.
And so began the countdown.
Now, at around 55 hours, the countdown is on at full flow.
It's not often that your elder sister (elder of two elder sisters) decides to study abroad.If she ever does, well bad luck. But no, after around a week of hysteria following her departure, life just had to move on. And before we knew it, she was back. In her own words, she was back by the time we could say thank god she's gone. Life without her was fine, quite alright and barring those few moments, a couple of telephone conversations a week could smoothen things out.
Today though, when you know her arrival is close on hand, you actually begin to realise what a difference it would have been if she was still here. I begin to realise exactly what I have been missing for the past four years.
There's more to it than physical separation, lack of interaction. When something or someone close to you is no longer close to you, there's this void, hard to describe but easy to feel. You know something's not there. Something whose absence can hardly be felt, but whose presence is inexplicably vital, something dear, something treasured, which is almost a part of you. To be precise, a part of you.
And now I'm excited by her arrival. 55 hrs hence, I will be seeing her, after two years, so my extra glass of juice can go to the right person. So I can feel her again, by my side, where she has always been, even from half a world away.