For siblings Kubbra Sait and Danish Sait, Raksha Bandhan celebration weren’t the usual while growing up. Interestingly, their mother, Yasmin Sait made them tie rakhi to each other with a promise that they’ll protect each other for life.
“I think that was very cute,” says actor-host Kubbra as she narrates this fond memory.
Danish — an actor, digital influencer, host and comedian — adds, “Mom raised us to be watchful of each other’s back, while she has got mine and I’ve got hers and this would remain like this forever. We were raised as equals, as two human beings and never had that boy or girl sort of a thing.”
While they might not be tying rakhis to each other now, but as Danish puts it, “We’re with each other in spirits… the days and occasion doesn’t matter. What we loved doing as kids might have changed, but every time we’re together during Raksha Bandhan, we hang out with each other over good food, sit on the couch and enjoy TV and talk about all things random.”
This year, owing to the lockdown, the siblings won’t be together on this special day. While Danish is in Bengaluru, Kubbra is stationed in Mumbai. In fact, they’ve missed celebrating their birthdays together as well.
Kubbra says that for them, it’s more of the bond they share that they celebrate rather than the festival in the traditional sense. “Celebrating such occasions makes you happy, brings back memories, but when you grow up, life takes you in different directions. What matters the most is being there for each other throughout the year and not just for one day when he needs to be reminded to protect me or that I’m reminded I’ve a brother to take care of me,” she adds.
Talking about this special day, she’s also reminded of that one time in their life when she probably wasn’t the best sister.
“It was one of those times when one gets consumed with work and start taking certain relationships for granted. I knew that he’ll call me when he needs and I’d do the same. And then one day, Dan actually told me, ‘You don’t do enough for me’. Sometimes you need to hear that to understand how you’ve behaved and what impact it had on someone’s life. I realised that when he told me things like, ‘You haven’t spoken to me enough, you don’t check on me enough, when was the last time you called and asked me if I was ok?’,” shares Kubbra, adding that this conversation happened about five years ago.
Calling it a wake-up call, she admits that it changed the course of their relationship.
“I decided to do something every day. Staying apart, we might not be able to meet up much but we do have communication today which is electronics and we try to make the most of it, whether just a random talk, or what our cats have done, to what’s the best thing happened to us and what broke us,” she ends.
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