Ask actor Avinash Tiwary and his sister, producer Swati Tiwary, how they plan to celebrate Bhai Dooj this year, and the latter shares, “One wonderful thing — wonderful for me, not so much for him — is that we now live just a minute apart. So, for Bhai Dooj, I’ll have him over, we’ll do the rituals, and I’ll cook for him. I never did when I was unmarried, and he always cribbed about it. But now, for Bhai Dooj, I make sure to cook something special.”

The festival holds precious memories for the siblings, who grew up cherishing this tradition. Each year, Swati performs the aarti and sings a song for Avinash. Sharing a glimpse of their close bond, Swati reminisces about Avinash’s protective streak: “Growing up, he had a teenage phase where he became this gunda,” she reveals. They went to the same school, and if a guy so much as nudged Swati, Avinash would get hold of him and give him a piece of his mind. “He’s more chilled now, but he’s still that elder brother,” she says.

Avinash chimes in, “Ab behen aapke liye Bhai Dooj kar rahi hai aur koi random aadmi aake dhakka deke chala jaaye aur tum kuch na karo, toh kaise bhai hue?”

But the actor has one confession: “Throughout my childhood, I poured my heart out to her. But for some reason, the elder siblings end up sharing everything about their lives, while the younger ones keep everything to themselves.”

Although, he adds, “Even though she’s younger to me, I have always said that she is like my chhoti mummy. And even in her phone, she has saved my name as ‘potential father’. So, we both have this kind of protective bond.”

Avinash recalls that growing up, Swati would perform a ritual on the occasion that is more common in Bihar, where the sister makes the brother eat bajri (pearl millet) and then curses him before pinching her own tongue with a thorn. “Then she says a phrase in our native tongue which means: ‘If you eat the bajri, you will become as strong as the grain. And if you don’t give a gift, you’ll become poor’,” he shares. Swati is quick to quip that she is yet to receive that gift. However, she is “glad that he is only becoming richer”.