Hello Anzim bhau,

You will be reading this letter on Rakshabandhan. I began writing this on 19 Aug, but I really don't know what to say. Idk, I'm just not able to think much about it right now. But that does not mean I undermine or have forgotten the efforts you have put in to save my life, to be there for me, and everything you have done for me over the last year. I won't forget any of it.

Know that I'm honored, insanely lucky, and proud to call you my sister.

And beyond everything you have done for me, I hope you know how much I admire you for who you are. You are an insanely strong woman, Anzilah. You're sharp, intelligent, and far more capable than you probably give yourself credit for sometimes. I genuinely believe you're going to achieve everything you set your mind to. Whatever you decide to do with your life, I'll always be the one clapping the loudest for you and probably being an unnecessarily enthusiastic cheerleader from somewhere in the background. I want to see you win, again and again, and build exactly the kind of life you want for yourself.

Here are a few gifts I found worth giving you this year. A perfume, and the Cadbury choco cake which you told me last year Pratik sir took from you when you were eating it in school, and a surprise gift which I haven't even purchased at the time of writing this letter.

You will continue receiving gifts from me every Rakshabandhan for as long as I consider you my sister, and I don't really see that changing. Wherever life takes either of us, I want to keep doing this.

Also, don't ever feel guilty if you don't give me a Rakhi or anything in return. I genuinely don't care. Life is too short to do barter exchange with the people we call our own. In this huge world, we get very few people we can genuinely consider family, and even fewer opportunities to call someone our own brother or sister. I got that with you, and that's enough for me.

And you don't owe me anything for being my best friend, and a sister. Not a Rakhi, not gifts, not constant replies, nothing. I don't want you to ever feel like you have to return something just because I did something for you. That's not how I see any of this, and nothing about it needs to be equal or returned.

These gifts are not just gifts. I want them to symbolise that if you ever trace them back, there is someone you can count on. No matter how much time has passed, what the situation is, or what state you are in, you'll always have a familiar and safe space here.

Happy Rakshabandhan, broski