The Ghost walk

Shocks are of many types. Mental and physical with sub- divisions like mild, medium and heavy.The cultural shock belongs to the mental variety and the epicenter for which lies in language, custom and gen-gap. The shock from this epicenter could turn out to be a slip in the palette, rise in blood sugar or pressure level and rocks only those with rheological difference in flow of thoughts. The rheology is self made and the cause for this is the confusion existing in the mind between yesterdays and today.

This ghost, waiting to take a walk in the park decides to come out and enjoy a day out. Being a ghost niceties or etiquette did not apply to it ; also the concern about the wake of feelings its trawling would leave.It  has a past and is happy to relive the same on a perpetual re-run. During these re-runs logic and common sense are consigned to the back seat, in adjacent rows.

The first step the ghost took was in the direction of relaxation techniques. If it had left it at that, it would have been fine, but the ghost complicated the matter by comparing the meaning of relaxation as known to it and being planned by the present generation. It had a strong opinion – “those who had time to kill did it with others patience, without feeling guilt”. This stirred the anger even in its heart of stone.

The second step brought it to the doors of friendship, getting confused a little, with the past and the present day ambiance of friendship. The ghost had no time either to enjoy or imbibe the atmosphere, then or now! With that mind set it landed itself in a predicament: to understand what is going on in the name of friendship among the youngsters.

The third step was into a get-together. The far away travel, eating out of a printed menu under a soft light called ‘a good ambiance’, juxtaposing it with plates filled with variety objects, jostling for eating space with the accompaniment of non- stop chatter were all beyond its jaded brain. Though, it did not fail to experience the food and chatter – rank indigestible. For the revellers, it was comfortable as custom demanded it!

The fourth step led to functions. The event, arrangements and the invited gathering made the ghost to feel like an alien. Even the compulsion to attend such functions lacked conviction and it felt like a soul out of spirit world.

The fifth step came crashing on the lack of time sense, urgency or giving a feedback.  Somehow, the ghost was not comfortable with today’s euphemism that no information is itself a positive development. It started to wonder about the direction in which the present generation was travelling. Though outwardly appearing to live in a chaotic environment, how do they manage to remain nonplussed!

The sixth step fell on the tidiness in and around the living place called den. Ghost knew only about the lion's den and fearing for dear life never went anywhere near that animal’s living quarters. It got the same feeling, after one such close encounter at home, when in the vicinity of such a place (son &daughter's den).

The seventh step came down heavily on the over dependence on electronic gadgets and Google. The mere sight of these gadgets raised goose pimples on its non-existent physical form. It had not used anything as modern as a digital or a mariner’s watch in its life time.

The eighth step sounded weary in its ears as it was bringing it closer to the din called DJ music accompanied with psychedelic lighting and purposeless swaying of humanoids in the name of dance. Its footfalls never even left a whisper and ear drums never came in contact with bone jarring music.

The ninth step took the ghost brought it into a shopping mall. The fashion wears and the wearers frightened the day light out of it. Aesthetics have been remodeled and the new in-thing appeared to be anything goes with anybody - dress wise. The world has not only shrunk into a global village but while doing so it had spawned chic, ethnic and uni-dresses just large enough to include a brand label. In its heydays, Synthetic materials were expensive and given second preference. With abundant material availability today, why people go for tights on oddly shaped bodies. Don't they ever look at themselves in a mirror? These two doubts zoomed past its brainless head.

The tenth , tired step brought the ghost to an eatery in the mall, where the people it had met during its ninth step indulged in gluttonous spooning of fat-friendly fast-food. It wondered why hurry so much, to attack plates of fast-food? What happened to those traditional food varieties? Don't these eaters know that calorie rich food is going to make a medical practitioner rich, some time in the future? How they hope to get in to those body hugging dresses, they have just purchased?

Having seen it all, the ghost did not become in anyway wizened but rather aghast. Spending free time without thinking about another's pressing works, filing it away to only to forget commitments given and being selfish in the garb of apparent selflessness only made the ghost to twist and turn in agonising thoughts of what is righteousness and what is not? What is in and what is not?

These heavy thoughts made the ghost to sit on a bench under a tree. The leaves trying to filter the sunlight and the sun rays dodging to find the gaps to escape and the wind joining hands with the leaves – it was a power play of nature using the essential elements of life. Outwardly all of them appeared unconnected but intrinsically each one of them had a part of nature and were willing to come together to celebrate nature.

The ghost thought over the fact that not all the plants bearing exotic and fragrant flowers are themselves fragrant. May be there are exceptions!  With these inspirations bringing it closer to reality, the ghost retraced the ten steps, dismissing its agoraphobic and misanthropic tendencies and withdrew in to its own world.

Tom and Jimmy

Tom and jimmy occupied a place of pride in our house. They were so good natured and the moment the word lion was uttered, scurried for cover and hid themselves beyond anybody’s reach. Cashing in on the fear of the live lion, we the youngsters used the mantra often to scare the daylight out of them. Poor pets had no way of knowing, given the chance of seeing even a caged lion we would do the same.

How they came into our care was an interesting story in itself. On a summer holiday, we were just lolling about in the hot sun, rebelling against the family diktat that hot afternoons are time to stay indoors. All of a sudden, a well grown cockerel came into our view giving a hot chase to a scrawny-looking hen for no apparent reason. As this was a common sight in the village, we did not pay much attention to their dispute.

Nearby, a huge heap of dry straw was stacked and a stray bull was just helping itself to a feast. The hen running out of steam, gathered all its energy tried to land on top of the stack but managed to do so on the bull’s neck. The sharp talon of the hen must have hurt it and in an involuntary action let out a sharp bellow. The bedlam broke loose; cockerel and hen vanished from the scene, the annoyed bull ambled away. With a time delay, a kitten and a pup emerged from the stack and at breakneck speed dashed into our house, which was a few yards away.

We children could not understand why they hid in the stack, how both of them came together to hide and why they chose to take refuge in our house? The weighty question was why they got separated from their mother’s? The other children in the group tried to convince us that the kitten and the pup could be raised as pet animals. Though, the idea sounded wonderful, the implementation part appeared difficult. In our house only voices will be raised not pet animals. The proposers of the idea might have been quick thinkers in pointing out the carrot and sticks, in front of us, in one go!

The hay stack escapees were intelligent survivors. Believing that closing the eyes and running for dear life will ultimately lead them to safety proved right. They found the open space in the backyard and decided to settle down, may be for just that day. The darkness in an unknown place might have frightened them to give out distress calls. Lucky for them these calls were received and acted upon, stealthily, by the women folks in the house. Food, water and rags were provided for their immediate protection. Thinking about plans to tackle the men folk at daybreak, the ladies retired to bed.

Unaware of these happenings, we dreamed up names for the kitten and the pup as Tom and Jimmy. Our worry was to get the names accepted by the other friends, as it was an established practice to work along with them as a team. The penalty for violation would be exclusion from summer games of the group and finding your own ways to kill the hot afternoons. It will be the most gruelling time in a village, enjoying power cuts at will.

 We understood the power of women in the household from the way they took neighbours on board, fed the pets and managed to hide them from the eyes of the male members, like it was a magician’s show. They simply banished them from going anywhere near the backyard , by making available all the services with a knowing smile. This sudden attention perplexed the breadwinners a little but their own worries in agriculture and business prevented any detailed analysis on the nature of the behind the scene activities.

Even the best kept secrets have to see the daylight one day. On this particular day, a relative who was disliked by the men in the family came to visit us. We liked him as he brought something or other for us and my father and uncles hated him for bringing along his pet dog. Out of respect to our grandmother, they refrained from taking the dislike too far. This pet dog had the nasty habit of wandering throughout the house at will and it ended up at the place where the two refugees were sheltered.

A barking contest started, calling the attention of everyone in the house. The assembly witnessed, rather heard, full throated barks punctuated with whimpers and meows .Finally the cat was out of the bag. Mixture of annoyance and anger flashed over the faces of my father and uncles. It was about to turn into a violent display when my grandmother deftly intervened and announced that she had brought them home and will continue to nurture them. For good measure she glared at her sons and said loudly, “come what may”.

That was all it took to subdue the volcanoes about to erupt. Remembering the hardships she had endured on their behalf, the men folk silently withdrew from the scene of action. The relative felt that he will be a welcome guest in the house from now onward. When we thought that all was over, our grandmother looked at us and said, “I hope this was not your idea to bring them home”.

We, Tom and Jimmy stood wondering at what she said. We did not plan any such thing and the pets did not know what it was all about. Even after months of training both the pets still continue to do the vanishing act at the mere mention of “lion”. We are yet to find out in what way their lives are linked to a lion? Is anyone ready to help us?

And the winner is ...

I was skeptic on reading a news item that metal objects could be bent, at will. I had to revise this skepticism to acceptance when my free will itself started undergoing this bending phenomenon in the presence of this kid. The person in the news item had used his psychic energy and this kid in front of me does it with pure magnetic force of smile and affection.

The sun rising in the east is normal and if it stands in front of your face, it is an event. An ear to ear grin with twinkling mischievous eyes and an authoritative voice heralds my dawn, whatever is the time, in the morning. This sun stands on raised toes, impatiently wiping the palms in eager expectations.

The agenda for the day starts with a hunting expedition to select his favourite toys. In an elaborate ritual, he opens up few cupboards, inspects, selects and then chooses a place to sit and playing with them. After a few minutes, the whole set up is abandoned with disdain and eyes the giant bear kept on a chair. Though it outweighs and dwarfs him, he manages to invite it to his boxing ring, by literally dumping it on the ground. Finding some issue with its non cooperation, he tweaks its ears a few times to express annoyance.

As you standby, as a referee, mainly to minimise his falls, he grapples with the toy bear exhibiting a boxer’s instinct. After showering few punches, he declares the match in his favour and switches over to horse riding cum bike racing. Sitting astride and by holding the hands he jumps a few times, on its tummy or back, starts riding the horse. For the motor sports he turns the hands of the toy to the left or right to steer his imaginary bike.

His vocal cords lend able support for mouthing various kinds of sounds, during these practice sessions. You wonder how he could imagine the prone bear on the floor as a horse or a motorbike. For some unknown reason he has chosen this teddy bear as his pet toy to which he will come back time and again, till bed time.

With no visible drop in the energy level, the next event is climbing over sofa, chair or a coffee table. The selected objective is always a difficult one due to height or accessibility. He does not do anything without a purpose and the objective must have something on it to attract him - toy or book or an electronic gadget. Disregarding the shortest route possible literally walks through obstacles without worrying about falls and injuries. These issues are sidelined after a brief cry to march towards the set goal. In case of unreachable heights, simply yells at you to become the stepping stone to bridge the gap. He expects you to be there when he requires such assistance. On reaching his summit, simply throws down the article of interest only to pick and place it in the same place. This is a ruse employed to keep on playing this climbing game till he gets bored with it.

Packing and unpacking or opening and closing is another favourite game to which he devotes considerable time. Cartons are opened, contents removed and repacked in deliberate wantonness. Kitchen shelves and fridge door are opened and banged shut till the hinges come off. Any interference to the activity, the intruder gets to see his annoyed face staging a range of emotions competing with the skills of a thespian.

The best attention is reserved for mechanical toys including a tricycle and pushcart. The music and flashing light from the toy is watched in wonder and then all of a sudden you hear only the silence. The reason is not far behind the toy; he has turned it over and forcefully applied his hand brake to stop the mechanical action. The poor toy must have tried valiantly to overcome the resistance and lost the battle by simply breaking down.

He spends more time in tilting and inspecting the underside of the tricycle rather than sitting on it to push the pedals.The pushcart suffers the ignominy of being always dragged, in belly up fashion, and dashed against the walls. If getting bored with these activities, he decides to stuff things in to their luggage compartments. Unable to comprehend that volume is a factor that decides the outcome, he becomes angry and stomps away.

Walking or wandering in and out of the rooms in the house is his way of breaking monotony in the schedule of activities. Standing still for a moment, on his toes, plans the route and then with a war cry tilts his neck to the right or left side and synchronises this with an  out stretched right or left hand. The best description I had come up with is like this: the left leg does not know where the right wants to go; the left hand wants to grab one thing and at the same time the right will be after something else; all the while his eyes will be darting from play-field to another.

If the agenda is only Walking, he tries to experiment different styles, on purpose. If the purpose is to exhibit skill, I am left wondering where from he had learnt all these. If it is to impress me, I am truly amazed! 

 If it is meal time, different set of activities are incorporated in to his busy schedule. Looking for stray dogs or watching a cat on the wall or the coming and goings of automobiles or activities of construction workers and so on. He goes on adding new items to this never ending list. It keeps him busy and makes you to wonder whether to feed him first or finish yours. He has even perfected a call sign, remix symphony of barking of dogs and meows of cats, to greet them on sighting and refuses to move on unless this shouting ceremony is completed!

The sun in the zenith is the period reserved for disturbing others' activities in the house. The person on the cell phone is the first victim and in a jiffy it changes hands. He readily volunteers his services in the kitchen without waiting for a request. The pressure cooker ejecting steam or the gating noise from a mixer is all the invitation he needs to run in to the kitchen. Having entered that space he does his bit to strew utensils, cereal and pulse packets on the floor or transports them to the drawing room for the fun of it.

At the slight sign of resistance to his pleasure, goes down on all fours, lowers his head and gently bangs the forehead on the floor. The initial attempts must have hurt him as he was unable to judge the distance and force to be exerted during the act. Taking the pain in his strides, he spent considerable time, to find the solution for minimum impact and perfect this form of pleading. This forehead touching scene would melt any heart and what a way to get his opinions heard!

When twilight presages sun set, this sun sits, legs folded back , in the form of “M” as if to keep the spinal column erect, in front of your tired mind and body, expecting entertainment till bed time ,that might be hours away. Brimming with excess energy, he finds ways to drain away yours first.. Spreading of a bed signals the start of bedtime activities. The giant bear is unceremoniously placed on the bed to start no hold barred punching match.

Pushing away the beaten bear, he next eyes a supine person to continue with the war games. Sitting astride, urges the person with his legs to imitate horse riding.The poor chap has to arch his tummy up and down many times, simultaneously neighing like a horse. If the kid finds the game less simulating, he slides back to sit squarely on the throat to express his displeasure at the poor horse show.

After sometime, he dismounts from the imaginary horse only to perform experiments in cosmetic surgery – lengthening of nose or ears or chin to add a dash of beauty to the face of his erstwhile horse.. All through this operation, the prone figure gets to hear a constant stream of humming as an anesthetic dosage.

Nearing the energy expenditure allocated for the day, the kid lies down on the same bed, besides the already tired and snoring old man, and falls asleep. In sleep, I the old man wish my sun to enjoy a dreamless sleep and whisper to him, “tomorrow is another day”.

From sun rise to close to midnight, this kid takes you through gravity defying manoeuvres, dabbles in a bit of chemistry, botany and animal husbandry challenging great minds such as Newton, Einstein and a host of scientists in various disciplines. By the time he calls it a day , you are ready to pack a bag or count the drops falling from an intravenous fluid bag and say “and the winner is the kid”.

Bystander - the armchair Euclid

Of late, the usual seriousness, barbed wire sarcasm and acrobatic arguments were missing in Bystander’s conversations .He could not explain this sudden change in Bystander’s attitude and this had Muser in a spot of bother. Having likened him as his alter ego, the onus was on his mind to find out the reason for this change. He decided the best way to resolve this enigma was to recollect their recent conversations and ferret out any hidden clue that might lead him to the solution.

The first semblance of a clue emerged from the recent conversation about geometrical objects. Muser patiently rewound that conversation in his mind which at that time gave him a feeling as though his friend was trying out something not natural to him.

“Do you know, the geometrical shapes that we see around us could be constructed using certain other shapes, which I would like to call complementary objects?” said Bystander.

Perplexed, Muser asked, “How come you have developed this sudden interest in constructive geometry? I know during your academic career, you willfully bunked mathematical classes on theorems and drawings!” Where from you got this term ‘complementary shape'?”

Clubbing both the questions, Bystander answered,“You mean to say that I will forever carry on these disinterests from school days? I just borrowed the term normally used to describe colours!”

Muser hastened to add, “I did not mean that but was only trying to understand the basis for this new interest that you have developed about shapes”

“Blame the football, if you want. That only made me to think about different shapes and how one could go about constructing them. For example a football or a sphere can be shaped  with pentagons and hexagons”, explained Bystander.

“What is special in that?” asked Muser to keep his friend talking.

“The specialty is that a pentagon itself can be constructed using a trapezium and a triangle. The hexagon is friendlier; a rectangle and two triangles will do the job”.

“If you have done so much thinking, what about enlightening me about the whole process?” asked Muser in a teasing voice.

“Depending on the diameter of the sphere you want, select the number of pentagons and hexagons. There is a relationship between the numbers and the area ratio of pentagon and hexagon that are to be used”

“Assuming that I have the needed numbers of each shape, can you describe how to construct the ball?”, Muser persisted with his line of questioning.

“Place one pentagon at the pole of the proposed sphere; surround it with five hexagonal shapes. Next, position one pentagon, each, in the empty space between two abutting hexagons. Now you have completed 75% of the top hemisphere by using six pentagons and five hexagons, in all. Repeat this process to form the other pole and the unfinished hemisphere”.

Getting impressed and unable to restrain his enthusiasm, Muser continued “How you will close the gap between the two hemispheres that are ready?” 

Sensing admiration in his friend’s voice, Bystander continued “Another ten numbers of hexagons are placed, in a slightly zigzag fashion, over an imaginary equatorial line, such that the open spaces between pentagons and hexagons forming the two hemispheres are closed. Muser tried to retrace these steps, in his mind, with twelve pentagons and twenty hexagons. He could easily visualise  foot ball or a sphere taking shape. 

At the end he had a number of questions to ask Bystander: “why this sudden interest in constructing a foot ball in this fashion? Why this cannot be made using only pentagons or hexagons? What will happen if the selected size of the pentagon is bigger than that of the hexagon used?”

“The answer to your first question is that I recently bought a toy football for my grandson and before he asks me how it is made, I thought, I would find it out now itself! For your second question I have only a partial answer: Using only pentagons, you may get an oval shape like a rugby ball. I don’t know what shape it will take if only hexagons are used.”

Continuing, Bystander said “You may have to wait for some more time to get an answer for the third question. I am not stopping with this but will try to find out a way to deal with other geometrical shapes using triangles, rectangles and squares as simple building blocks.”

It became clear to Muser that Bystander has been bitten by a ‘shapely’ bug and nothing will divert him, at least for some time, from this monomaniacal attention to shapes. May be he has now found out a way to complete that unfinished portion of his learning curve!

Behind the counter deals

If the title smells of something like an unlawful or illegal transaction it could be only in your imagination. This narrative is about the traumatic experience of accompanying my family members on a shopping trip. The only consideration shown to me was the offer to handle the swiping of credit and debit cards at the cash counter. To keep my team spirit up, they elected me as their baggage bearer.

The family always travels in comfort and a call taxi was already waiting to take us all to the shopping area. They always chose that place as it had every conceivable thing on offer and on each one of these trips; I mentally cringe at the thought of my bank balance doing a parachute jump. The creaking sounds from my mental gears must have disturbed their animated conversation about fashion jewelries. They directed 1000W glares on at my head to roast out the stray thoughts and continued as if nothing had happened. At that point, I stopped thinking like a camera shutter.

In all, we climbed the stairs and took the lifts in four different jewelry shops. To me these appeared like a stage set for the shooting of a street scene, with milling crowd at the sales counters and cash counters. In this melee I lost headcount of my family now and then but the heads were very busy to notice my trailing. After considerable time, they came out without buying anything. Surprise number one puzzled me a bit!

The next two hours, I spent in getting the feel of textiles and gathered information on spinning and weaving techniques to kill time.  During these two hours, countless saris were taken out, spread on the counter, refolded and stacked. If the colour was appealing, pallu was not; if design was enchanting the colour was not; if all were passable it had the wrong price tag! Honestly speaking,I have never stayed for more than 10 minutes inside a cloth shop including the few minutes spent at the cash counter.

During the wait period I heard the family reeling off “Kanchi, Dhramavaram, Arni, Pochampalli, kashmiri, Mysore, Kota, Bengal” and other household names at the counters leaving the salesmen crying without recourse to kerchiefs. Similar exercise was repeated in the selection of ready- made dresses for ladies.  As an afterthought they invited me to select something for my daily wear, in the men’s section.

Surprise number two numbed me into inaction for two reasons: in my usage daily wear means inner clothing and to buy that a whole family need not go shopping; I don’t wear ready-mades!

When this late wisdom dawned upon them, they trooped into the floor holding a collection of pant and shirt clothes. Here they unilaterally selected colours I normally avoid. My dislike was written large on my face and this made them to stick with their selection. As a quid pro quo , they allowed me to have a go at the children’s wear and  select a few items of my choice with their grumblings in attendance. An icing on the cake?

Surprise number three was waiting on the pavement shops – they spent equally ample time gazing at the wares but bought variety of things and clothes, not before the formalities like hectic haggling and heated discussions with the vendors or among themselves.

Having exhausted their energy and my patience, they searched for a good eatery to replenish their lost vigour. The billing machine might have heaved a sigh in relief when it finished the printing of the bill.

The best of all was the surprise number four – I did not know that my family could single handedly cause a famine of sorts at short notice; I do not know how they could appear so satisfied after buying things from hawkers.

I got the answers on the way back home. At the jewellers they were only interested in getting to know the latest trends; at the clothe shops the idea was to check out some tall claims made by their friends and at the same time look for something new; shopping on my behalf was a face saving measure ‘from whom?” I could not guess; the eatery was their main aim and the pavement shopping a time pass!

Before getting down from the taxi they collectively said, “Our behind the counter shopping saved you lot of money and the incentive for that was the pavement shopping followed by the visit to the eatery”

They left me to settle the taxi fare and to worry about the depleted bank balance.

The Domestic violence

An act performed with intense intent is violence. The sole aim of the perpetrator is to gain the upper hand and the situation resembles a hand to hand combat. In this combat the loser is always a weaker opponent physically or mentally or both. The perpetrator is a doted kid and the losers are the parents and grandparents!

Gone are the days when children obeyed parents and elders. Those were the normal kids and within the then prevailing environment did their best to behave. Today, a new generation of parents and children have come in to picture. The techie parents and ‘put up with’ the gadget kids have a logic of their own which frightens the elders, who were docile kids, once upon a time.

The gadget kid takes everything for granted – handling toys, electronic gadgets and optical instruments belonging to others too. The kid's geographical knowledge is so phenomenal; it just needs only one visit to a friend's house, accompanied by parents of course. The kid simply sweeps everything aside to open a chest of drawers and pull out all the items of interest for subsequent endurance testing. The hosts stand transfixed at the ferocity with which their dear possessions are being pulled out. The parents stand wondering whether to chide the child or to go instantly invisible.

The mayhem continues without any break, while none of the elders gather enough courage to tell this gadget kid that enough damage has already been done. A broken toy or a Smartphone screen inflicted with  scratch wounds was  not enough to satisfy the kid’s bravado . The parents have firsthand experience of what this ‘enough’ will throw up – a high pitched  siren and nerve wracking tantrum , the combination being worse than a loss of face in a friend's house. Unaware of this potential trouble, the hosts try to gently remind the gadget kid to show a little restraint.

The kid starts to fashion a skating roller out of an imported LED lamp. The was beyond the “enough” for an elderly person trying to remain calm all through this .He looked  at the kid and said, “ Enough. Is this how you play at home?”

That was the trigger to set the siren and the tantrum going, making the hosts to see ghosts on the walls with a promise that the worse was yet to come. To play the part of perfect hosts, they swallow their pride and acknowledge, outwardly, that the gadget kid is super intelligent like almost all the kids nowadays. They mumble in unison, that such fertile mind needs to be kept fully engaged. The unspoken thought ‘Oh! What a monster of a kid' remained unsaid for the sake of a friendship.

The elderly person sat thinking after the storm had moved away from the house: Why the parents fail to show the kid its proper place? Why they give in so easily to the demands of the kid? Do they realize, in the future, their ward might develop intolerance of egomaniacal proportions? Don't they care or do not have the energy resources to set things in proper perspective? Is this the price extracted by MNCs as a quid pro quo for lucrative jobs? What makes them to endure – fickle health of the child or any other compelling psychological or physiological reason?

Why the hosts keep quite; for the fear of straining the friendship? Why they do not make the kid to understand, gently of course, that freedom comes with defined boundaries? Why do they not tell the kid tantrums hurt every one? Do they fear to accept the fact that they only encouraged the kid to evolve into a menace and a monster?

The elderly person continued thinking : Is it because they have a better understanding of today’s kids and are optimistic that as the kid grows up these things will be left behind? Are they not failing, as a friend, in not telling the parents to begin grooming the child a little better? Do they also anticipate a re-enactment, at a future date, and hence keep silence?

Finally the elderly person thought about an old hat, like him, may not be comfortable in the company of such kids but has to put up with the incorrigible, if at all, to maintain the pretense of flowing with the stream, at least for that moment! He could not appreciate the rate at which ‘child independence' is being granted or taken for granted.

Seeing all things ‘red’ might be the habit of old hats, and in modern homes there is no place for a coat stand!  To be at peace the old bag started to pack his luggage. But the thought remained : “When will this domestic violence end?" Whether he has lost faith on the present generation? He kept these thoughts to himself, for a simple reason; did not want to become a persona non grata, at any cost!