Pettiness- manifestations of a different sort

It started out nicely enough... two sisters divided by a gap of almost a decade and their mom, a lazy Sunday afternoon and a cupboard full of treasures! It was meant to be a fun afternoon, deciding what clothes you were to have for the pujas (which are, now that i realize, about four months away) - a generally pleasant state of affairs. Till suddenly, the younger exclaimed that all the "good" stuff was being kept aside for the eldest and she was only receiving the "uglier" things... the particular point of content was a lemon green and golden length of cloth given as a gift to the eldest by a favourite aunt.

The eldest had been literally salting it away for such a time and place when she could wear it without guilt and be totally happy with it. Problems with that thread of thought being - a) eldest is usually wary and she is never sure of what to expect where, b) eldest needs to be told when to be happy, c) eldest is usually guilt-ridden with actual and imagined sins... etc etc.. eldest is not a happy person.

But (now this is an actual sin), eldest's self preservation antennae went on overdrive on hearing that the youngest had plans on the green stuff. She immediately lunged forward and carefully wrapped it up again in it's clear plastic wrapping... youngest fumed!

She had, till then, borne (quite a number of times) the dictat from their ma, "no, that belongs to didi" and she burst out. She made a grab for the clear plastic packet... eldest yelled (blood curdling-ly) and grabbed the packet back. Youngest launched into a tirade, eldest followed.

The ma stood stunned in front of an open cupboard, amidst colourful cotton and silk...

End result - youngest petulantly declared she didn't want any clothes for the pujas, eldest sobbed and ranted and went on about how the youngest was always taking her things- and NEVER returning them... the latest being of course a pair of green tourmaline earrings, which were returned... damaged.

Youngest brands eldest as the selfish mean thing eldest never suspected herself to be...

Later, eldest wondered who was actually being petty... she would probably never be able to carry off the beautiful green suit as well as the pretty youngest would... she was not into gold or sequins either... she probably never would be happy or guilt free enough to wear the suit... and yet, she was not able to share it with someone so "close" to her...

Youngest is now upstairs, still fuming and angry and curled up on the bed with Harry Potter...

Eldest thought and thought about what to do and sat down to write a blog...