Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Sarkar Raaj


A guest blog-post by Amartya Gautam


The Srinivas family, over the past few months has been hit by the shrapnel from the explosions of creative writing. The attack came from unexpected quarters as one of their own discovered the writer within, and thus through the ensuing blogs, reasserted her position as the supreme commander of the Srinivas forces, inspiring from all in her vicinity, the familiar feelings of awe, fear and respect all at once.

Battered and bruised, the victims approached the bravest soldier amidst them. And thus, I write this on behalf of all the unsuspecting victims, my fate as a martyr decided even as I typed the first few words.
(I must make my case as a brave youth, you see, for I am informed by reliable sources that the next post will seriously jeopardize my reputation as the same!)

The aging matriarch (this description alone carries death penalty), is often mistaken as a docile creature – my friends, for example, dismiss my accounts of our fierce battles. They insist that Suchi AUNTY is always smiling, extremely sweet and friendly. Little do they know that our clashes matched that of bhima and hidimba( she being hidimba, of course), except more intense perhaps. The skies and the earth have trembled (the rest of the family and neighbours too), as we fought tooth and nail, giving no quarter. Even my father’s harried attempts at being a peace emissary were of no avail. You think I exaggerate? Take another case, of her trying to teach Ananya maths. The mere mention of it sends the rest of us into fits of laughter, while the two of them exchange painful smiles, their eyes conveying to each other the burden of the tragedy only they must share. Typically, the maths lesson starts with utmost sincerity on both sides. The guru and shishya, ready to embark on their voyage of knowledge. Ten minutes into it, one hears a reprimand or two from the adjacent room, in a mildly exasperated voice. Ten minutes later, one can hear several more of these at a distinctly higher volume, accompanied with cranky protests from another voice. At this point, if there is no intervention by some peace loving being, all hell breaks loose and one is forced to consider that the apocalypse has perhaps, after all, arrived in 2012. The remainder of the family, while sensibly not engaging with this formidable force in battles of such epic proportions, are wary of poking the eye of the sleeping dragon.



Mrs. Suchismita Srinivas (Suchismita Sarkar, before marriage), is much like Hippogriffs – you’re in big trouble if you mess with them, but if they like you, they can be really nice too. The trick is to dodge the occasional moments of wrath, and has been so far mastered only by one person, and he is married to her.

There is one thing that we all agree on, though:
In our household, there is Sarkar Raaj.