Every summer since I was young, I have gone to India for my summer vacation. This year was no exception. In India, I visit my grandparents and my 13 year old cousin brother Aniket and 7 year old cousin sister Anisha who I call my siblings. Each summer with them is a new experience.

Last summer with my cousins, we were playing volleyball in front of our house. We had a rule that no one should bump the ball too high, or else it would bounce off the roof and disappear into the grassy field that surrounded one side of the house. My own sister, however, did not heed this warning and did what was feared; she bumped the ball too high and it fell in the tall grass. Now we all may think that we could have simply ventured out and retrieved the ball effortlessly. But, in India, you always have to beware of the snakes that roam day and night. About four years ago, a snake had squirmed its way into our house and shed its skin overnight, but that’s another story. We were faced with the dilemma of getting the ball out of the grass.

After a few minutes of thinking, Aniket got an idea and instructed us all to pick up the heavy, long and dense sticks that were used to start fires. At first, only Aniket and Anisha started whacking at the grass to clear it out of the way. I held back my hyper sister, who had actually gotten us into this trouble. Suddenly, she felt that she couldn’t miss any more of the “fun” and pushed me aside to get a stick, too. Even after I made several protests, she ignored me, so I stood back and gave directions.

For a while, everything was fine. Suddenly, Anisha cried out sharply. My sister had hit the back of her neck with the heavy stick. I immediately started scolding my sister, while she looked like she was about to faint.

Luckily, my grandfather is a doctor who keeps a stash of medicine at home and prescribes medicine to everyone in our family. He quickly ran outside with his medicine and thankfully saved Anisha from suffering too much pain. After that, we went through the motions of explaining to our parents and my sister promising that this won’t happen again. So this was one of the experiences I got to share with Aniket and Anisha, an experience I will never forget. And from that time onward, everyone knew not to give my sister any responsibility because of her high-strung personality.