When everything was lost, all that was left was us.

 I have been binge watching this series on Netflix called "Schitt's Creek". I have just absolutely loved this show so far. Most of the times, when I love a book or movie or series this much, it is because I find a common connection to them somehow. And I had been wondering how was I connected to this goofy story.

And then, it just struck me out of the blue today. For those who haven't watched it or dont know what the series is about, it is a story of a couple and their two grown up kids who had been very rich and spoilt at some time, lose their everything and then build up their lives in a small remote place called Schitt's Creek.

For some reason, one of the episodes I watched recently took me back to  rough phase in my own childhood when my dad had lost his everything in the business and we were down to rags. It was a really painful and bleak phase of life. Lots of incidents that I have sort of blocked out of my memory. Oldest among my siblings at 16, I knew what was going on in the house. All 6 of us, including my siblings and parents were trying to turn those dark days but somehow fate and time was just not in our favor. 

Yet, there is this one incident that I still to this date, remember very clearly. It was late in the evening during summers and there was a power cut.  So we were all outside in the verandah. It had been one of those days where things had taken a turn for even worse. I had just come back from college and papa was lying on a charpai, too silent for his usual self. Mom was sitting there too, as if in some deep thoughts. My sisters were already home a bit early that day and brother had also come back from market just at that time. My sisters, in their usual goofy nature, were doing some comedy about a neighboring nosey aunty; my brother was laying with his head in my mom's lap and adding his flavors into their jokes. I was sitting next to my dad and rubbing his head.  A few minutes went by like that...then my papa got up and sat and looked around and said, "Sab kuch kho diya, lekin tab bhi sab nahin khoya hai !! Agar itna sab khokar bhi hum milkar hans sakte hai to isse badi koi baat nahin ho sakti !!" Even in that darkness, I could feel the pain on my dad's face and sense what was going on in each one of ours heads. And that line of his has stuck with me ever since. 

Things did not change overnight like a Hindi movie; we went through hell and worse !! But the only good thing that came out of it was how close it brought us all together and how strong it made my dad's kids. His daughters can fight a mountain and survive in a desert. We learnt the importance of money and relations in life. And my brother, he learnt to only trust and rely on his own hard work and gut feelings and nothing else in life. Even so far away, he knows his sisters has his back.  Anyone who knows me well, know how close I am to my siblings; they are like my own kids. And a lot of it comes from that phase. We understand each other like no one else. When one of us makes a decision, even without talking, we know what was going in their head for them to act that way. Nothing in the world can turn us against each other.

Because when everything was lost, all that was left was us and only us !!