Raksha Beyond Blood: Chosen Siblings
Raksha Bandhan has become another occasion threaded through millions of homes, worry-free silk, tempting sweets and solemn pledge of protection. A sister ties a rakhi and a brother resolves to protect her. However, in a world wherein family was once confined under one roof, this occasion has become something much greater. It’s no longer just about brothers and sisters bound by blood. It’s about chosen siblings, those who enter our lives not through lineage, but through love.
In a time when the meaning of family is being redefined, Raksha Bandhan is finding new ground. It is no longer limited to biological relationships or patriarchal protection, it is blossoming into a celebration of mutual care, emotional safety and deep companionship. Because sometimes the people protecting you the most, never did so by growing up with you. Instead, they had every reason to walk away but chose to be there.
We tend to forget our friends who often became our anchors during the storms of life. The colleague who sat in silence during your panic attack. The roommate who stood between you and your darkest thoughts. The cousin who feels more like your soul’s sibling. These are the protectors we forget to honour. Those who were close to you even when it wasn't convenient in accordance with energy, time or space.
The promise of Raksha Bandhan, ultimately, is a cohesive principle: "I will look out for you." It makes no reference to gender, hierarchy or history. It speaks of presence, of holding someone through their worst and witnessing their truths without judgment. And who better fits that promise than our chosen family?
In many ways, chosen siblings offer a deeper emotional safety. They come without expectations, without the weight of tradition or duty. Their loyalty isn’t inherited, it’s built. And that's the holy nature of it. When a friend protects your peace, when a partner protects your dignity, when a mentor protects your spirit; that is raksha in its highest form.
In a world where your identity does not exist without your upbringing. It is often a revolutionary act, not tied to blood. Many people grow up in homes that are not safe, emotionally vacant, neglectful, perhaps even abusive. For them, protection did not come from within four walls. It came from the outside: from a friend who checked in at 2 am, a teacher who saw through the mask or a neighbour who became a guardian angel. So for them, Raksha Bandhan does not serve up the memory of what was deficient, it is a celebration of the things that were discovered.
You don't have to be somehow related to be a family. Sometimes the people you meet by accident are the ones that serve your purpose. There is immense healing in recognizing the bonds that saved us. Sometimes, it is your female friend who tied her protection around you when you were at your weakest. Sometimes, it is your younger sibling who parented you when your parents couldn’t. Sometimes, it’s your chosen brother who stood up for you against the very people who were supposed to protect you. Rakhi, then, is a process, not a ritual. It is a recognition.
In an era of chronic isolation, where social connection is often limited to pixels on the screen, chosen siblings serve to be our lifeline. People we go to for both joy and for despair. The ones we call at 3 am with heartbreak and at 5 pm with good news. Isn’t that the real spirit of raksha?
This Raksha Bandhan, let us widen the circle. Let us tie threads not just on wrists but around hearts. Let us honour those who have stood by us not because tradition asked them to, but because love did. Write a letter. Send a message. Tie a rakhi on your best friend’s wrist. Offer your protection to the one who always protected your joy.
And while we do that, let’s also reframe what protection means. It is not just about shielding someone from the world. Sometimes, it’s about witnessing the world burn with them. It’s about holding their hand when they are too afraid to speak. It’s about standing on their behalf when their voice wavers. Raksha is about more than bravery, it’s about being their first.
So, here's to brothers who aren't blood brothers, sisters who weren't originally born into our family, mentors that feel like parents and friends who adopted us each day. May we celebrate them with as much reverence as tradition because they are the ones who remind us that protection is not a duty. It is a choice.
And sometimes, the family we find is the one that saves us.
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