Freekick Family

You are within the firing range of a typical malayalee family with the husband straining at the leash and the wife holding him back

Life as a husband to a woman with a superhuman memory but…

“Manu chetta, that’s the 27th peg you’re taking this Christmas.” “Twenty-seventh! How do you know! Bullshit! Twenty-seven is a long stretch of your imagination. Don’t think I’d buy it.” “You want to hear out the split-up!” “What split-up Divya! You exaggerate a lot. How can I ever take 27 pegs in a week?” “Well, how many did you take the day before your college closed for the holidays? That evening, with your friends?” “Not a drop more from my usual stuff.” “Usual stuff! Bah! That means, your … Continue reading

A minister for an uncle

I divided the rice into two heaps. “Uncle, this is my great great grandmother and that,” pointing to the heap of rice on my plantain leaf, but towards his side, “is your grandmother.” Too ungrandmotherly a shape, he could only nod at the heap of rice I pushed towards him. “This. My grandmother.”  “Yes! Your grandmother.” With that settled, I was now busy delineating relations with the rest of the rice. From the corner of my eyes I could see Divya sitting at the far … Continue reading

Freekick: Not Joking this time

Life! I sighed, sat back to the old chair, and closed my eyes thinking wistfully about those days, when I could spread light by just opening my mouth. How eager my friends were to get to me just to lighten up their moods! Alas, the muse had left me forever. My fingers perambulated through my beard that had already started turning grey. Not just beard, I looked around, everything had begun to turn a pallid grey in my world. This … Continue reading

A Note from a Callous Husband On His Wedding Anniversary

The husband. The wife. Today is their 16th Wedding Anniversary. I admit that I have been been a cruel husband all my life, but for a reason. Call me ruthless! You are not going anywhere. Manu chetta, I must go home. When a woman is married off she must find her home with her husband. But I must see my parents. When a woman is married off she must find her parents in her husbands’. How can you be so … Continue reading