Alcohol consumption is always injurious to health, but wise men say laughing can increase your life expectancy, what if the latter can overcome the side effects of the former. This intuitive thinking made me believe that if you are in the right company, it’s always nice to hold one beer bottle in your hand. This incident happened about 4 months before, just after my first series when i was back home. Me and my brother went to my mothers home town about 30 km from my house. It’s a beautiful, hilly area with rubber estates and very low population density— almost 8 acres per family.
It was a hot and humid day, and only one of my cousin brothers was free. So we planned to go to another cousins house. Unfortunately my uncle alone was there, so we sat there the whole afternoon and discussed all topics below the sky, gossiped, criticized . As time passed everyone became restless,as it was only 5 in the eve and as beefco remained open till 9 pm we planned to buy beer. I, being the youngest of the lot, was taken advantage of.
My cousin and me were sent as the delegates to the nearby befco. As I was not that familiar in that town I was asked to stay behind in the peaceful and obedient queue. There were lots with whom I had acquaintance,they all smiled to me but I didn’t smile back wanting to give them an impression that I was not the one they had in mind. As I waited in the queue my cousin came back buying the necessary side dishes. Seeing the long queue he took a fresh thousand note and waved it in the air and shouted “chetta oru case beer” the queue got parted as if mosses ordered red sea to. One person came and took the money and handed one case beer to him. I wished he could come earlier. I was forced to carry one case beer and load it into the fridge. As no one was expected to come to that house that night we (me my bro my cousin bro and uncle) planned to have a bash there.
Sitting on the balcony we started gossiping again. Suddenly my bro’s phone rang, there was a huge firing from the other side he made it in loud speaker mode and made all of us to bare the sin. The firing could really help me add some new words to my dictionary. It was my other cousin brother, who had just come to know about our drama at befco. He was angry because we never called him. I don’t remember how my bro settled the situation any way he said he will be there in an hour. Astonishingly i could see his car coming in fifteen minutes, when i really got amazed about my cousins sincerity. He came to the balcony and was unusually startled to see my uncle there. He sat near me and asked whether uncle was here when he called, giving me a sense of his shock. I recollected the new words he donated to my dictionary to make him feel little more comfortable. But he suddenly changed his mood and kept one “full”(bag piper) in front of us and ordered me to bring beer and water and the side dishes and glasses and on and on and on. I settled down with one bottle of beer as i was the youngest i was supposed to have only one and wait for their whole heartedness. I waited but things got really interesting when these people started discussing the nuclear deal. I stopped drinking and listened to it as i don’t want to miss any of the lawpoints. I assure u that even barrack obama might have not have found such loop holes in the Hyde act as per my frenzied uncle. All of them except me and the cousin bro who came late were under the charms of the bagpiper. As there was no one in the house we were asked to report to another cousins house for dinner. But the crossfiring finished only by midnight, and my cousin and me, managed to get them in to the back seat of the car. I really had a tough time in convincing them that we have to be in the front seat so as to to drive the car, as they kept asking us to sit in the back as there was enough space left.
As we reached the foothill we saw one person sitting in the bus waiting shed. We stopped there and my seemingly normal cousin asked him why he was there, to which he replied that he was waiting for the rain to stop. Being suspicious my cousin called others near by. They started questioning him. My cousin asked me to park the car and stay inside, as I had to take care of the “three lambs.” I parked and stayed inside the car , and heard the three of them snoring from behind,i understood that this is what it meant by being a good shepherd (st. Febin sounds nice!!),but my cousin woke up and enquired about the situation. The detective in him awoke and made other’s awake too. They started questioning him, when they suddenly found another person hiding behind the waiting shed. Then there was a series of interrogations. I was trying my best to be a good shepherd ,with his detective nephews questioning, my uncle couldn’t stay back he came with the verdict. Moving towards them he ordered “these are criminals, they don’t deserve any sympathy. Hang them now!!!” “kutta (that’s one of my cousins pet name) hang them now!!, pointing to the waiting shed. One among the criminals spoke out abruptly “height is not enough.” My uncle reframed his verdict “ kutta!! Ask them to kneel down and hang them now!!.” My cousin reminded me about my duty. I took them back to the car and came back soon. By then the “criminals” had confessed .They had come to get bamboo from jobi chettans (my another cousin) property. My normal cousins face seemed to be depressed he said “ come I will get it for you, do u have any vaakathi ( knife)with you”. I now wondered who really was normal. I somehow managed to get my cousin back to normal. What I saw when I accomplished that job was a series of photo sessions by my bro, cousin bro and uncle, holding the criminals— with a victory symbol, in the middle of road at 1 am.
