Episode one

Jason's the mischievous one. The other brother is disciplined. He eats what's on his plate, he doesn't drink, smoke, or drive rationally, oh how can I forget he's an engineer? Jason also wants to be like his older brother. He wants to be an engineer. He likes Science. He's good at Maths. Abhi toh 10 saal ka hain. Agle das saal mein dekhna badal jayega. 

Jason sits on the table although he was told not to sit there. He's playing tic tac toe by himself, discussing strategies, and muttering rubbish. He's unaware of the tragedies of this home. He was a baby when most of it was going on. Now even when he's older, his parents believe he doesn't understand. Aarav, the younger one joins him in his game asking if he would like to play with him. I don't mind, he'd mutter in his babyish voice. The first time he'd let Aarav win. By placing the X's in all the wrong spots. Aarav quirks up his brow. Another one, I'll win this time, says Jason. Sure do you want to bet on it? What does it mean? To bet on something? Yes. Aarav explains it to him, and Jason picks up quickly. What do you want to bet? If I win, I get chocolate. And if I win? I'll give you a hug. Aw, okay. Jason wins the first game. Best of three? He asks anyway. Sure. He wins again. One more?

Aarav? Yes? He's called from the other room. Aarav says, they'd continue the game after he gets back. He goes into the room. He hears Aarav's voice but needs help understanding what he's saying. A moment later, Aarav comes to the door and asks for Jason to enter. Jason stands up and comes to the door. He looks at his mom sitting by the silhouette of a frail, bald woman. It's Aarav's mother. Meghna, he's here. Oh, babu, says the woman, it's been so long. Jason isn't afraid to come close. Do you remember your Meghna aunty? Yes. Hello aunty, aap kaise ho? I'm fine babu. She coughs, loudly. Jason panics and hugs her. Meghna's struck by confusion at first but when Jason screams DO SOMETHING!! As his mother picks him off her, she starts laughing. It's okay babu. I have a fever. She lies. Aarav tells me you won at tic tac toe. Do you like chocolate? Yes. He asks jumping up and down. Which chocolate do you like? Cababli. Cebabi, cabubli. Oh? So you want this? YES YES YES he yells as he sees the chocolate emerge from under her pillow. 

Aware of everything before him even as a child, Jason knew his Meghna aunty had little to none of the viral infections listed in his father's thesaurus of medically known diseases. His father works in a huge MNC pharmaceutical. He's namely head of the sales department. But their little house is crowded busily with medical books from top to down. He thinks in absolutes. Meghna aunty will die. When he receives the news of her death, he envisions himself cracking open a bottle of the most expensive whiskey in the house, eating his favourite instant noodles, and cursing at inflation. He wants to be his father. Her cancerous blood-curdling cough makes him wish it was sooner than later. It did happen. But 7 years after he told his mother while leaving that he'd be an automobile engineer. He does not know why he said that possibly because Aarav was an engineer. He'd heard his mother say, "What a nice boy, not only does he study so much he also cares for his mother." He wishes someone else's mother also speaks as highly of him as his mother does of Aarav. He didn't know this single sentence would drive the life force out of him.

7 years later, when news of Meghna aunty's untimely timed death broke. Jason didn't drink any whiskey. He spent his afternoon crying naked in the shower. He was 17. He cried at the news. He cried when he saw the body. He cried when they took her away. He cried himself to sleep when they got back. Although his elder brother and his brother's friends only remember him farting in his sleep when they discussed how they'd prepare for their upcoming final exams. The disciplined brother was in his final semester of engineering by this time. Aarav had been working for 3 years now as an IT analyst in another huge MNC firm. He's sporting a french beard. Jason's mom says it makes him look like an older man but Jason registers the information, knowing it is of no consequence to him. He can't grow a clean beard for the life of him. It grows in patches. He hates that. Hence, always clean-shaven and with well-groomed fingernails, he sits in the place of Meghna aunty and watches football matches with Aarav even years after her demise. He'll continue doing this through every world cup and every important match for years till Aarav's marriage. Aarav's marriage comes quickly after Jason's 20th birthday. Onlookers and the videographing public ask the recently married groom who's the young man who danced the most energetically through all the ceremonies. He replies it's my aunty's son. She was my mom's best friend. She's like my mom now. So he's my brother.

Jason hates Aarav's wife. Like a toxic girlfriend being cockblocked by her man's best friends. Post-wedding, when Aarav and his wife visited their home to distribute sweets for Diwali, nobody laughed as much as he did when the newlywed groom discussed his wife's diarrhea with his father. "Uncle works in a pharmaceutical. He knows medicine." He did, but her unfamiliarity with this tradition of relatives asking his father for medical advice with such simple ignorance of others' privacy always made him cackle. Jason remains unclear about his relationship with Aarav. He doesn't visit him enough to be a best friend, they don't speak beyond the confines of the pursuit of his engineering degree or football. Aarav was one of the proudest family friends when he heard Jason cracked the top 100 AIRs in his JEE. One of the most competitive exams in the country. If he knew that Jason's success was not credited to his hard work but rather to use means of cheating, illegal and that he was a criminal at this point in his life. Aarav would have broken all ties to him and his family for their deceit. As principled as Aarav was, he continued living without the knowledge of Jason's duplicity. That is till he finds out.