Sonu Nigam
Sonu Nigam is the eldest of the three siblings. He has two sisters — Meenal Nigam, a yoga guru who is one year younger than him and Teesha Nigam, a singer, who is 11 years younger than him.
Sonu: Meenal and I would dance on the terrace of our rented house when I was 6 and she was 5. I used to observe the dancers’ steps at the concerts I did and then I’d teach them to Meenal. We don’t do that anymore. As for Tinni (Teesha), I miss picking that tiny toddler up from the bus stop in my bicycle. My parents loved that sight of the elder brother and the youngest child together.
Meenal: As kids, we would go to our chacha’s home in Delhi and we’d sleep on the terrace on wooden manjis. We looked at the stars and talked endlessly. I miss spending that time with bhai. Also, both of us loved watching movies. So, as kids, we would watch so many films together, mostly horror ones. We would watch them in a dark room, scream in some scenes and cover our faces. Since Teesha was a baby, we would send her to another room. Bhai and my love was films was so intense that we would exhaust all of them and wait for a new one to release. We try to relive that time whenever possible even now.
Teesha: The most memorable time of my childhood with dada was when I was a little girl, and he had just started travelling abroad for shows. He would always return home with a bag designated for me, full of chocolates and toys. That gesture would make me feel like a princess. I miss those beautiful innocent times.
Dr Palash Sen
Dr Palash Sen has a younger sister, Dahlia Sen Oberoi, who is a lawyer and author.
Palash: I am glad that Dahlia and my bond remains unchanged. We still do the same things that we used to do as kids. It’s just that we grew up in a very big family, so all the memories of us were intertwined with our relatives. And some of them are no more, so we really miss those times. She was and continues to be my pillar of strength.
Dahlia: Dada was two years senior to me and we went to adjacent schools. He would wait for me after school. Come rain or shine, he was always there. Even on days when I had extra classes, dada would still wait for me. His face would light up when he’d see me, and vice versa. That habit of him waiting for me before going home was lost as we grew up and school ended. It’s one of the highlights of my childhood.
Shaan
Singer Shaan has an elder sister, Sagarika Mukerjee, who is a singer.
Shaan: Sagarika and I grew up more like friends and each other’s support system. Our habits haven’t changed. We still laugh on the silliest things and have a common wacky imaginative sense of humour. What I miss the most is spending time with her. With family, work and her moving to Italy, we don’t get to see each other often. But whenever we are together, we have exactly the same connection like we always did.
Kailash Kher
Kailash Kher has a younger sister, Dr Nutan Mishra Kher, who is a spiritual healer.
Kailash: Something that hasn’t changed for Gudiya and I over the years is our Raksha Bandhan ritual, where she ties the kalawa or raksha sutra to me. But what both of us miss the most is my mother’s handmade mithai. When we were kids, she would made kalakand and barfi with the pure milk from our in-house gaushala. Ab woh badal gaya hai kyunki ab hum sab mithai avoid karte hain. I also miss meeting my sister often, because she shuttles between Delhi and Rishikesh.
Tulsi Kumar
Tulsi Kumar (34) is the younger sister of producer Bhushan Kumar (46).
Tulsi: I think habits and traits don’t change over time, it’s just the way of expression that changes. Also, sometimes, tables turn, like in the case of me and bhai. As kids, my brother and I would play a game where he would whistle a tune of a song and I would guess the name of the track. As we grew up, our fondness for music grew deeper. What’s changed is that now I send him song melodies and he approves and gives his inputs, and we churn out music together.