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September 28, 2006
Vishy's Indian English Dictionary: rakhee sister
rakhee sister./rah·KHEE sis·tuh/. Not a blood sibling but one in spirit. A rakhee is a wristband that a woman ties on any man she considers her brother, in exchange for his protection (on a day called Raksha Bandhan, lit. bond of protection). After the rakhee is tied, the pair are bound as spiritual siblings who will look out for each other. It is fairly common to see men walking around on Raksha Bandhan day with their forearms covered in rakhees. Blood siblings also engage in this custom, but just as many rakhee brother-sister pairs, if not more, are unrelated by blood.
Needless to say, the ability to designate anybody as your sibling can easily be subverted—not all rakhees need be mutually consensual. Tying a rakhee on somebody's wrist is entirely the woman's prerogative, and a way to brush off unwelcome advances from a man. Sometimes, snubs can happen inadvertently. Suppose you're a man in American society and you're really attracted to a girl until she says to you one day, "I can tell you anything. You're like a brother to me." That's exactly how an Indian guy can feel if a girl surprises him with a rakhee. Of course, in both the American and Indian versions of the situation, the guy is supposed to react in the same way, with a smile that hides more than it shows, because he has just become a rakhee brother.
Posted by Vishy at September 28, 2006 11:16 PM