My Sister’s Admiration
Sometimes, a name follows you before a face ever does.
I had heard his name before I ever saw him. At home, my younger sister, Sunny, wouldn’t stop talking about one person…
Ajay.
I had heard about him many times before I ever saw him with so much admiration that it became hard to ignore.
The person behind all this praise was Sunny, my younger sister. She studied at the high school campus of our university and took tuition classes in math and science. Every evening, at dinner, she would bring up his name with endless admiration. She had been obsessed with talking about him at home. “Akka, you won’t believe how amazing my tuition teacher is!
Ajay sir is the best! “Ajay sir is incredible, Akka!” she gushed one night, her eyes twinkling. “He explains everything so clearly.” He’s not like other teachers, he explains everything so well, and he actually makes learning fun!”
I rolled my eyes. “Sunny, you talk about him every single day. You sound like you have a crush on your teacher.”
She immediately frowned. “It’s not like that! He’s just… different. I wish I had a big brother like Ajay sir,” she would sigh dreamily. “He’s so different… so disciplined, hardworking, and kind. There’s no one like him in this generation.”
Her words intrigued my parents, who also began to admire him from afar, even though they had never met him.
My father looks younger than his age and works as a field engineer and supervisor in a well-known company. Though he always dreamed of becoming a mechanical engineer, he couldn’t complete his graduation. Still, he built a strong career with his hands-on skills. He once hoped I would follow his dream and become a Mechanical Engineer, but I chose modeling instead. And he accepted that with a soft smile. And my mother is a doctor, a woman who heals people with a quiet strength.
Our family is a simple, peaceful Christian family. We pray before meals, we go to church, and we believe in kindness above all.
And yet, I couldn’t help but feel a little skeptical.
“Ajay seems like a rare young man,” my father said, sipping his tea. “In this generation, finding someone hardworking and disciplined like that is rare.”
“A young man like that is rare nowadays,” my mother had commented. “Most boys his age wastes their time, but Ajay seems to have a strong sense of responsibility."
She continued, "Discipline at a young age is a blessing", she said. “Ajay sounds like he respects both time and values.”
At the time, I had merely shrugged off their admiration.
“Come on, Amma,” I said, “he sounds too perfect. There’s no way someone like that actually exists. People like him are only in books or films.” Was there really a guy like that in today’s world? Someone who wasn’t distracted by trends, bad habits, or arrogance? I highly doubted it.
Amma smiled and said, “But sometimes, such people are real too, just hidden in the crowd.”
I didn’t believe it.
In our Modeling campus...part of our large, prestigious university with multiple departments like Engineering, Medicine, Arts & Science, and even a high school. I had never seen a boy who fit Sunny’s description. Most were either arrogant or distracted by trends.
So, I didn’t believe her.
But life has its own way of proving you wrong.
Exactly two weeks later, I saw him for the first time.
And something deep inside me paused… as if the world shifted for just a moment.
***
