For the last two-three years, festivals had somewhat lost their charm — the warm, family gatherings, large meals, laughter and the feeling of joy that comes with having every loved one in the room. With lockdowns becoming a faint memory of the past, Raksha Bandhan this year is being celebrated in all its glory around the country. Celebrity homes and families are no exception to that. With Raksha Bandhan coming up tomorrow, Janhvi Kapoor is looking forward to spending some much-needed time with her siblings, Arjun, Anshula, Khushi, and her cousins.

Janhvi says, “Raksha Bandhan, for me, always symbolized a day when the whole family gets together, no matter how busy we are. We cousins get together and have a nice meal. There’s a warm, fuzzy feeling of seeing family around, feeling a renewed sense of security and catching up with each other, which we don’t have the luxury of always. We always have lunch at either Sanjay chachu (Sanjay Kapoor), Anil chachu (Anil Kapoor) or daadi’s house.”

Janhvi adds, “It will be the same this year, too. It will be a huge feast with the family. The celebration is quite simple and basic, but it’s just a lot of fun to get together. Hopefully, it will all be the same this year, too.”

Talking about her most memorable Raksha Bandhan celebration, she adds, “The first time when I tied Arjun bhaiyya a rakhi was definitely the most memorable Raksha Bandhan for me. It wasn’t too long ago, but it was special.”

Janhvi believes that the sense of security and warmth that she gets from her siblings has made her stronger as a person. “I think with every passing year, I’ve felt stronger and more secure because of the love and the strength of my siblings, and more so in the past couple of years. Khushi and I have always been extremely protective of each other, but now, there are two more siblings in the equation — Arjun bhaiyya and Anshula didi. Right off the bat, there was a sense of ‘we are there for each other’, ‘we have each other’s backs’, and that we want to be a family in whatever sense of the word we can make that happen. It means the most to us that we get to be there for each other. I sleep better knowing that I have two such solid people looking out for me. I hope they feel the same for me because I know that I’d do anything for them.”

As siblings, an important element of growing up also involves helping each find perspective and evolve emotionally as better versions of oneself. When asked how her siblings and she contribute to each other’s lives in this respect, Janhvi says, “As brothers and sisters, you grow through each other’s experiences and learn from one another. I feel fortunate to have two such wonderful elder siblings who have seen so much in life, have so much wisdom and feel a sense of responsibility to guide me. I don’t think I would trust anyone’s judgement over theirs. I feel the same way for Khushi, who is younger than me. I wish everything that I have learnt and gone through only influences her to make better decisions than I have in my life. The one prayer that I have for my brothers and sisters is that they should just keep growing and be exemplary people. I wish they continue learning, get all the experiences they desire from life and love what they are doing.”

The Kapoors are one tight unit, and while Janhvi’s siblings are her core support system, she explains that every brother-sister relationship is different. When asked to define an ideal brother-sister relationship, and how close to that she thinks her equation with Arjun is, an emotional Janhvi says, “There is no such thing as an ideal relationship. If there is a sense of trust, security, and understanding, these things can mean different things to different people, and that relationship is as close to being an ideal one. I have all of these in a modern, new and alternate capacity with Arjun bhaiyya. I look up to him for the man he is. What I share with him is a special relationship. I am just lucky to have him in my life.”