At the outset, a thing or two about the Indian culture. Adult children are expected to live with parents, their college/wedding expenses are expected to be borne by parents. In return, adult children are expected to take care of parents in their golden days.
I am 38, the older brother is 41. Right from childhood, he has been a bit of a child prodigy, and I won't deny it - I too looked up to him. He knows the right language, speaks well, speaks ambition and is hardworking too. My strengths nowhere match up to his (though I rank my integrity much higher).
He was always the apple of my parents' eyes and their pride. I was the goofy, happy-go-lucky one.
As luck would have it, I indeed got lucky right from the start of my career itself. I was making money from day1. We both run our independent businesses (living in the same house, Indian culture). The businesses are self-setup while the father has his own. All businesses are verticals of the same company, although each has to manage its own cash-flow.
My brother's business is doing well too, or at least that's how he projects (read above - "speaks" ambition).
But something strange happens on the side - my father funds his every expense, and to such an extent that his monthly expenses, his credit card bills, his wife's bills, daughter's fees etc etc etc. His travels, and cars, fuel every damn thing. So to my eyes, he has two pockets - one for filling/saving his income and the other to incur expenses (my father's).
I always felt bad about it. After keeping mum for a long, I finally made noise about it in 2016. And this is where it gets interesting - I am told that he is the "ideal" one as he hands over all his income to them, and that's why he is entitled to all his expenses being borne by them. On probing further, I realize that this is just a cover-up, although they will never admit it - he is their golden trophy after all, and it would be demeaning to admit favouritism. But it continues to this date. And he continues to be their pride, while at 41 still living off them and accumulating his earned wealth elsewhere.
But I am still torn. I have done extremely well myself (for context - I have accumulated more wealth than my wildest imagination 18years back when I started) and my parents' "cover-up" isn't proven. It is also undeniably true that as things stand today, my brother is closer to them now and generally an ideal son to them, while I care lesser and lesser about them (although my resentment is due to 6-years of financial favouritism).
Am I the asshole here? Are they all right and I am whining unnecessarily?