Baton of Tyranny

When i was packing my bags and leaving for the train, sheelz (mom's sis) stopped me in my tracks and gave me The Sign. I was pretty reluctant to, but then, when orders come from her, you better start doing what she says unless you want to miss the train and be screamed at for the rest of the night for utter lack of responsibility among other high sounding allegations. I sighed (pretty inaudible, coz that would be enough for me to miss the train) and turned to vicks (the scapegoat, guilty as charged, my cousin). The idea behind this whole exercise being I, the elder brother, have to educate the younger brother with his ways of life.

That was when i started empathising with all those poor, round pots, who __had__ to call the kettle black because they were "politely requested" by other bigger, rounder and threatening pots, inspite of knowing that they were, are and in all likelihood, will be blacker. I could already visualize a certain gang of people queueing outside my place with stones, but since, i guess i would go with a tonne of stones than messing with sheelz, I pulled a chair to brainwash my cousin. What followed next was an hour of unmatched sermoning. I missed few mayil-peeli (feathers of peacock), a flute, four horses and a chariot while vicks missed one huge bow with a quiver full of arrows (not the archer shortstory book for chrissake, we are talking the real quiver). Otherwise it was full and proper "Kuzhandhai .." sermon with me instructing vicks about the viles of sun/raj/jaya tvs and the importance of mathematics. And so passed the role of "head preacher of the krishnamachari clan" from my aunt, down to my uncle and now to me and If there is one thing that connects us three, it is the fact that, for the kind of disciplinarian he was, krishnamachari (great grand father) would have shot us down without batting an eyelid, if he could.

At times during the preaching, I thought my aunt was laughing which was allright because she knows me pretty well, but suddenly I had this strange feeling that vicks was smirking too. I heard the alarm bells ringing when brownie (and thatz our faithful, fearless, fourlegged friend .. woah, how many Fs) actually yawned and started showing signs of uneasiness. Before he could actually understand the situation and start laughing, i wrapped up the stuff midway, gave a few cliched statements, packed my bags and hit the road. After i had walked a few steps, i heard this distinct bark, starting as a bark of surprise and slowly turning into some sort of uncontrollable howly laughter. I guess brownie eventually worked it out himself. sigh.