Too much monkey business

The evening news blared out of the television. At the bottom of the screen the words 'Landslide in Wayanad' screamed in white on a blood red background. He sat on the bed typing into his laptop, which rested on his lap. From time to time, he looked up from the laptop screen to look at the television screen. He listened to the news for bit before getting back to his laptop. His mobile phone lay resting on the side table, relieved to left alone for a few minutes. But the mobile phone's relief was short lived. Someone called and it had no choice but to ring. He looked at it and saw that the call was from his nephew. Since his nephew got his own mobile phone, he did not call him much. Earlier, his nephew used to grab his parent's phone and talk to him. So he wondered why he was receiving the call now. He picked up the call and heard his nephew's desperate voice at the other.

"Uncle, we need help. We are the college for training. There is a problem. Please come."

"What is the problem"

"I can't tell you now. Please come quickly. I will send the address. Please don't call, only send messages. Please come soon."

"But wait..."

His nephew had cut the call. He looked at the time. It was twenty minutes past seven. He received his nephew's message about the location. It was a small place 200 kilometres from his location. He checked the web and found that a bus would leave from the bus station close to his hotel to the location in two hours. Thirty minutes later he walked out of his room with a backpack and made his way to the reception. At the reception he informed the receptionist that he would come back in a day and that his luggage was still in the room. He was a regular guest at the hotel and receptionist noted the point with a smile. 

He reached the bus station thirty minutes later. At the station he was informed that a bus that passes through the location would leave from bus bay number 4 in another 5 minutes. He found a bus with the word Delux written prominently on the front, at the bay. He inquired with the bus driver if the bus would pass through the location. The driver responded "You have to get down at the by-pass. It does not go into the town." He informed the driver that he had to go to the college. The driver said "The college is not too far from the place. I think some six or seven kilometres away. But we will reach there by 4. I am not sure if you get any vehicle there at that time. You have to either walk or wait till 7 o clock". He asked if there was a bus that goes to the college. The driver responded "No bus to the college. It is in the middle of nowhere. Even from the town it is difficult to get a vehicle till 7". He remembered the urgency in his nephew's voice and decided to board the bus anyway. He got a ticket from the conductor and found his seat. The seat was hard and the bus did not exude any kind of deluxeness. But he was happy that it was not dirty. 

He did not sleep well more due to anxiety than discomfort. He wondered about his nephew's anxiety. At that moment he remembered that his sister had mentioned that his niece too was planning to attend the training. His nephew had not mentioned about her but then he had hardly mentioned anything during the call. He did not want to call his sister and frighten her. So he decided to wait for a few hours and find out for himself the cause for his nephew's desperate call. He woke up when the conductor tapped on his shoulder and said "Wake up, this is your stop." He got up quickly, picked his bag and got off the bus. He looked at his mobile. The time was five minutes past four. Many buses and trucks passed through the highway but he did not see any auto to take him to the college. Behind him was a small tea shop, which was open. He walked to the shop and ordered a tea once he reached the shop. He asked the shop person how he could get to college. The person responded "At this time, there are no buses or vehicles here to take you to the college. There is only one possibility. Can you see that road? Usually an auto stands at the beginning of that road. The driver sleeps inside the auto. If he is there, he might be able to take you to the college." He looked in the direction pointed by the tea shop person but in the darkness he could not see the road. He did not see anything at all. The tea, to his surprise, tasted good. He was tempted to have another glass but once again the urgency in his nephew's voice made him decide otherwise.

Vehicles were plying at regular intervals on the highway. This made crossing it difficult. He waited for nearly three minutes before deciding to dash across to the middle of the road. He waited for another two minutes on the median before dashing across to the other side of the road. When he reached there, he touched different parts of his body to ensure that all of it had reached intact across the road. Everything was fine, nothing was lost during the crossing of the road. He walked tentatively to the road that the tea shop person had pointed to. It looked dark and ominous. He did not believe in supernatural beings but he believed in the existence of snakes and scorpions. So he took out his mobile phone and switched on the torch. It lighted up a small part of the road. He held it straight and it lighted a small part of the way ahead. In it he could identify faintly, the shape of a vehicle straight ahead. He walked briskly towards it. When he reached the vehicle, he was relieved to find that the vehicle was indeed an autorickshaw. His relief increased when he found a person sleeping inside the auto. He shone the light on the driver and tapped him lightly. He said "mmmmm", turned around and continued to sleep. He gave the driver a harder shove. The auto driver jerked out of his sleep and sat up. He felt terrified to be woken up thus with a harsh light shining on into his face. The driver shouted "Aaaaah! Leave me alone. Don't harm me." He moved the light away from the driver's face to his own face and said "Calm down." It is said that not many people get calmed down when they hear someone say "calm down", The auto driver seemed to be one such persons. He flayed his hands and legs and let out an "Aiyoooo!" To calm the auto driver without saying calm down he decided to get to the point "I want to go to the college. Come, let us go." The auto driver's business sense kicked in and he said "Oh! You want to go college is it? Sure... Oh no! There is a problem."

"What problems?"

"The headlamp does not work."

"What!"

"Yes. It stopped working last evening. I could not fix it. I will fix it later."

"That's too late. I have to go now."

"But it is too dark. Wait for an hour."

"I have to get to the college immediately. You drive, I will shine my mobile's torch on the road."

"Your mobile's torch but I can't see the road with that."

"The torch is powerful."

"Yes! That is true. I am nearly blinded by your shining that powerful torch into my face."

"Let us go. Come on."

He sat besides the auto driver and directed the light towards the road. A small part of the road lighted up. It was not clear, how this was sufficient for the auto driver to drive but he continued to drive. For an risky enterprise like this, the twenty five minute drive proceeded without any hitch. A few times, the auto driver asked him to show the torch towards the side of the road. At those times, he commented with satisfaction "Ah! Right! We are on track." The auto driver knew the road like the back of his hands. When the auto reached the college's gate, he got out of the auto, paid the auto driver and told the driver "Wait for me here. I will come out in one hour." The auto driver hesitated "But, ..." He interrupted the auto driver by saying "It will be dark for another hour. So you can't go back anyway. You wait for exactly one hour. I will pay you double." The auto driver seemed to like the deal and said "Ok. I will wait here."

He took out his mobile and looked at the message his nephew had sent. "The gate is locked and there are no watchmen there. Don't try to call out for anyone. The compound wall is not high, you can climb over that to get in. The road that goes straight from the gate leads to the hostel named 'Ambili'. The hostel is right after the main building. The gate of the hostel is open. We are in the first floor; room 111. Please don't make any noise. Come very quietly." He was perplexed by the paranoia in his nephew's tone. He wondered if he should be worried getting into the campus. But when he looked into the campus through the gate, he did not see a reason to worry. He walked towards the gate and turned towards the wall on its left side as he got closer. He climbed the wall with some difficulty. On the other side there was a stone bench next to the wall. He climbed down on to the bench and jumped to the ground. Almost at once, he heard something rustling in the trees above. He waited for the rustling to stop before walking towards the hostel. As he walked along the road, he could hear rustling among the branches above. Soon, he reached the hostel named 'Ambili'. The building seemed run down and was in desperate need of maintenance. He went in and climbed the narrow staircase to the first floor. He turned left and found that the room numbers started at 114 and increased. He turned around and walked. He knocked softly on the door marked 111. He heard footsteps approaching the door. He heard his nephew's voice ask softly "Uncle?" He responded "Yes, open the door." The door opened and his nephew stood in front of him.

"Thank god, you are here. Come in, come in" he whispered. He walked in and saw his niece sitting on one of the cots in the room. She waved at him and said "Sorry to bother you uncle. My brother is over reacting unnecessarily" Her brother retorted "Be quiet! You take everything lightly." Before she could respond, the uncle asked his nephew "Tell me what happened. Your call had me worried." The nephew started narrating the events of the previous evening.

"We were offered the hostel to stay for the night as the training continues tomorrow. We accepted it as there are no hotels close by and we did not want to travel. Only when we got the room did we realize that the hostels are ancient and many rooms have not been used for years. The room had no bedding or pillows, only these wooden planked cots. But since we were only staying for a night we thought it will be ok. The lunch served in the afternoon was bad and so we did not have much expectations about the dinner. Even so, the dinner was worse. They made dosa using batter made during Raja Raja Chola's time. It was sour like hell but we had some dosas anyway. We had apples with us and so thought it will be ok. We came back to the room at around seven and soon we heard a knock on the door. I opened the door and found two monkey standing outside baring their teeth. They were large monkeys, almost half my height. They were standing on their hind legs with their hands held high in a threatening pose. I got scared and jumped back from the door. The monkeys jumped into the room, ran straight to my bag, opened it and start rummaging through it. They found the apples in it. I was shocked. I could hear hundreds of monkeys outside..."

His sister interrupted "Oh! Don't exaggerate! There were a few monkeys outside. Anyway, while my brave brother was screaming and shouting, I picked up the waste basket and smashed the monkeys' heads with it. They got scared and ran away." It was now the brother's turn to interrupt "Not before they tried to pounce on her. I beat them with the broom too and they ran out. I closed the door and latched it. Since then through the night they have been screaming all around the room and banging and scratching the doors and windows. Its been terrifying." The sister said "That's because they know there's food inside." The brother said "Its not just that. These monkey are ferocious." Suddenly, a voice from the corner said "That's true. They are ferocious." The uncle nearly jumped out of his skin on hearing this new voice. He had not noticed a small person sitting with a stick in one corner of the room till then. He asked "Who are you?" The small person responded "I am the watchman." The uncle was confused "But what are you doing here? Should you not be watching?" The watchman responded "No, no! These are not monkeys these are demons. I can't be outside with them." "So you hide inside this room is it?" "On other nights, I lock the gate and go home. Today, I stayed back as these two were staying here. A big mistake. The monkeys nearly killed me. So I came here. It will be safer if we are all together. These are not monkeys, they are demons." The uncle had enough of these spooky tales and quietened them "Alright, alright. Let us not panic and make stories. They are monkeys and monkeys are wild creatures. They are unpredictable and ferocious." His niece agreed "Exactly! I am not sure why people make up such stories."

The watchman became unhappy by this show of cynicism from the uncle and his niece. He said "You don't believe it! That's because you don't know the history of this place. I am sure all of you have heard of the Ramayana. In it, Lord Rama surreptitiously kills the monkey king Bali. It did not happen like that and as Ramayana focuses on Rama's story there is no mention of Bali after that incident. In reality, it was a battle in which Bali and many in his army of monkeys were killed. Since then Bali and his army have roamed around the battleground tormenting anyone who came anywhere close to that place. The battle ground is called Ambalipuram. Over time, the name changed to Ambilipuram, which is the name of this place and this hostel is called Ambili because it is on this spot that Bali was killed. Ambali is short for aham Bali which means I am Bali." The uncle looked around and found his nephew crouching in a corner. His niece shouted "What nonsense! Stop saying such rotten nonsense. Ambili means the moon. That is the name of this place. Aham Bali it seems. People will say and believe anything." The uncle quietened her and said "It does not matter. We cannot stay here. Let us get out of here. This is not a place to stay. I have an auto waiting outside. Let us go". The nephew and watchman protested but the uncle and niece stood firm on the decision to leave.  

The uncle opened the door cautiously. He put his head out and looked to the left and then the right. The corridor seemed empty. He walked out cautiously and waved to the others to follow. They went down the staircase and got out of the hostel. Silence enveloped them. The lamps on both sides of the path lighted their way. They walked quietly. The uncle walked in the front while the niece was at the end of the group. They held sticks in their hands. The watchman and the nephew walked in the middle. They walked cautiously looking at all sides. Suddenly, they heard rustling of the branches above. The nephew and the watchman attempted to run. The uncle held their hands firmly and directed them to not run. They walked nervously behind him. By this time, they were walking abreast. They were all looking in all directions, including upwards towards the branches. At one point, the uncle lost his balance and nearly fell on a hibiscus bush that grew besides the path. The niece caught his hand and whispered "Careful uncle, don't wakeup the flowers." He gave her a quizical look and said "Don't wake up the flowers? What do you mean wakeup the flowers?" She responded "Not wake up, I mean pluck. Don't pluck the flowers." He asked with annoyance "Pluck the flowers! Why would I pluck the flowers?" Before she could respond the nephew whispered urgently "Will you two be quiet!" They walked towards the gate quietly. 

As they approached the bench the gate, they heard the sound of something hitting the ground. They turned around and saw two monkeys approaching them. The watchman and the nephew screamed. The monkey screamed back menacingly. The uncle ordered the others to climb over the wall and jump. "I will take care of this" he added. While the nephew and watchman climbed over the wall, the niece and uncle swung their sticks at the monkeys. The monkeys bared their teeth and hissed menacingly. The uncle pushed his niece towards the wall and shouted "Go!" Once she jumped he too quickly jumped the wall. All of them ran towards the auto that still stood by the gate. The driver woke up with a jerk by the commotion. He was shocked to see four people running towards his auto. Before he could react, the uncle dragged him off the back seat, pushed him on to the front seat, sat besides him, switched on the mobile torch, directed it towards the road and shouted "Go, go, go, go, go!" By this time, the remaining three had jumped into the seat behind. The confused auto driver turned on the auto and drove away from the college.

On the top branch of a tree, an elderly monkey sat looking at the first rays of the sun painting the horizon orange. Darkness still surrounded the world below. In the darkness, the monkey saw a faint slither of light moving away. The monkey sat looking at the light till it faded away. 

Movies - July 2024

Count from August 2023: 189 

July 2024 -  movies and series

1. Lion: This movie appears in many lists of Academy Awards worthy movies in Prime. I have consistently ignored it due to its name. It reminds me of the 80's malayalam movie song where the hero realizes that the work LION when seen upside down is NO17, whic seems to be a major clue in the movie. Everytime I am reminded of the scene, I am both amazed and appalled. Also, I am not ready to watch a Dev Patel movie. I did not like Slumdog Millionaire and this dislike somehow landed on Dev Patel. Recently I read something good about the movie and decided to watch it. It was a good choice. A beautifully made movie. The initial scenes though sad and disturbing are shot beautifully. The fact that it is based on a true story made it fascinating and touching. By the end of the movie, I had to fight my tears.  
2. Makal: I only watched this movie for Nasleen. He brings out humour well and his timing is impeccable. One scene from the movie appears in many reels. Nasleen lived upto the expectation. In general the movie is a super light movie, its so light that it seems pointless. It has a serious theme but Sathyan Anthikad flies through each situation so lightly that none of it leaves an impact. In the end, it is good break from all those heavy award worthy movie. As a post script, I am not sure why Jayaram acts in these roles. This is a typical Jayaram role and I think I have watched him do such roles many times.
3. Priyan Ottathilane: I only watched this movie for Sharafudeen and for the good rating that this movie has. The movie is not taken well. I got the feeling that I was watching a serial on Asianet. But the screenplay was good and so the movie keeps the viewer occupied. At two hours and twenty minutes, the movie is too long for the story but as I said the screenplay kept me occupied. The actors are good and situations are interesting. Good for a watch.
4. Civil War: I had seen the trailer of this movie on the big screen. I did not like the trailer, it reminded me of one of the zombie attack movies.  But even the bad trailer was good enough for me to realize that this is a movie not to be missed. Yet, I missed watching this movie in the theatre. I really wanted to go for the movie but I couldn't. During the first week of July, I saw that the movie was released in Amazon Prime. Almost immediately, I started watching the movie and finished it in one sitting (nearly). Its a beautiful movie. It has a poetic feeling to it. As I watched the movie I shouted to myself "You should have seen this movie in the theatre man." I really should have watched it in the theatre. Though I have seen many great movies during the past few weeks, this one captured my attention totally. Its scary and beautiful. The background score is one of the reasons for this - the change from music to the sounds of the scene and a song suddenly bursting into the scenes make the movie a complete pleasure to watch. I love this movie.
5. Gaganachari: Once again it was time to watch a movie in the theatre with family. I did not want to watch Kalki. I don't want to pay money for a hyped up pan-India nonsense. Besides, I don't want to watch a movie with Prabhas in the lead at the theatre. I have done that mistake twice - Bahubali 1 and Bahubali 2. Also, a harcore Telugu movie fan had responded Amitabh was good when asked what he thought about the movie. This does not augar well for the movie. So I gave the movie a skip. I am not even sure if I will watch it in OTT (As I review this writing I am attempting to watch Brahmastra on OTT, so I think I will end up watching Kalki on OTT). Instead a movie called Gaganachari captured my attention. The reviews for movie were good. It's a Malayalam sci-fi mockumentary that was not mocked by any reviewer. Instead everyone appreciated the movie. So I booked the tickets for this movie. This is one of the funniest and wierdest movie that I have seen. I am not sure I will recommend it to anyone as I think they will only observe the wierdness of the movie. But the movie has a lot more than just wierdness. It shows how storytelling can make the most impossible of scenarios plausible. At a less than modest budget, this movie depicts a convincing post disaster earth, focussing only on a small section of Kerala. That said, what made the movie click for me was the humour. I laughed.
6. Half Love, Half Arranged (Season 1): I had seen bits and pieces of this series as reels and had found them amusing. So when I found that the series was available in Amazon miniTV, I decided to watch it. The series is a short one with just six episodes, each about twenty minutes long. But miniTV being a TV has a number advertisements added to it. This made the experience a bit painful. The series itself is funny. Most of the characters are fun to watch. But I did not like the end of the series. It left it at a place that forces one to wait for the next season but somehow I felt I did not care about it. I seemed to have lost interest in the series during the last few minutes. Anyway, I will see the next season too if and when it releases. If I am unable to do so, I really don't care.
7. Bramaram: Many years back, I saw a small part of this movie and I liked it. But it is a Blessy movie. I had watched two of his movies and did not like it much. For that reason I have not watched Aadu Jeevitham yet. Also, other than Drishyams I have not liked any of the recent Mohan Lal movies either. So I never got around to watching this movie. Recently one of my friends mentioned this movie and said that Mohan Lal was terrific in this movie. So I decided to watch it. Sure enough, Mohan Lal is terrific in this movie. He brings out the disturbed and yet decent character out well. But the movie making is terrible. It seems like an Asianet serial at many places. Other than Mohan Lal almost all other characters are loud. This makes the situations seem extremely staged. All this seems to have convined me that I would not like to go through this movie again. But I think I would like to see Mohan Lal's acting in this movie again and so might watch a fast forwarded version of this movie some time in the future. 
8. Malayalee from India: It has been sometime since I had seen a fun Nivin Pauly movie. The teasers seemed funny but even there the jokes did not seem funny. The acting seemed forced too but I still hoped it will be a good movie. It wasn't. The story seemed like a combination of many movies. In that sense the movie is a paisa vasool - you get five movies at the cost of one. But that is not the issue with the movie. It does not flow well and worse the acting is forced. Nivin’s interactions with the Pakisthani character are good and is funny in some situation but other than that even Nivin has not acted well in the movie. For a disappointing movie, the ending is even more disappointing. It is cringe worthy. Ultimately, it is not a movie worth watching even on OTT.
9. Dune:I had heard that the David Lynch made this movie is the 80’s and that it did not get good reviews. Yet, when Prime threw this movie at me, I could not resist the temptation to watch it. I think the movie deserved all the terrible reviews that it received. The movie is terrible in most, if not all, departments. The only thing interesting about the movie is watching Sting make a fool of himself in a few scenes. It is interesting to note that the negative characters in the movie displayed too much energy and all the positive characters seem spaced out. It seems they were all high when they acted in the movie. Their eyes stared into infinity as they whispered nonsense, AT some points I had to rewind to hear their words. Still, I don’t regret watching this movie. It was an experience that one must have at least… No, not at least. Its once and only once in one's life.
10. Manaadu: This movie was a rage when it was released in the theatres. Its was STR’s come back movie. It is directed by Venkat Prabhu. S J Suryah’s acting was the talk of the town. Yet, I did not want to watch the movie in the theatres. In general, I don’t watch Tamil movies in the theatres, not because I dislike the movies. But most Tamil movies have something that is terribly disappointing in it. I am usually annoyed just watching many of them on OTT. So, I gave this one a miss. Also, the movie is based on ‘Source Code’, which is a movie I love, and I was pretty sure Venkat Prabhu, will not be able to do justice to that movie. I was right and wrong. The first half of the movie is not great. But the second half is good. STR’s dialogue delivery continues to be annoying. It is so annoying that I am unable to remember how he acted. The explanation for the recurring events that occur in the Hollywood movie was explained using science but we being Indians brought in gods and mythology into it. The explanation is not unbearable. It is cheesy to hear the actors mouth it with a serious expression on their faces. I might have lived with it if I had not watched ‘Source code’. On the whole, like most Venkat Prabhu movies, this one is a decent entertainer – timepass.
11. Thoramukham: I was very unhappy to see Nivin Pauly in ‘Malayalee from India” and so wanted to see another movie of his. I found this one. It also has Joju George and Arjun Ashokan in it. The movie was directed by Rajeev Ravi. Its rating was not too high, but it seemed interesting, and Rajeev Ravi is a good director. So, I picked it. It is a terrific movie. The direction, screenplay, cinematography and editing are great. The background music is superb. Poornima Indrajit is absolutely fantastic in the movie. She brings out the aging of a person well, though her makeup is not great.The movie tells a sad story and yet it seemed like a poetry. I was reminded of the first few scenes of the movie ‘Lion’ but in Thuramukham it is consistent and the whole movie maintains the flow. The climax is great and got me pumped up. I think this would have been a good theatre experience movie. 
12. Garudan: This movie fits the description I had said some time back about Tamil movies. This movie was a hit and has good reviews. Yet, it is a terrible movie. It seems like a rehash of all the Sashi Kumar movies. I did not like the movie at all. Soori is ok. Unni Mukundhan is not much of a bad guy. I have no opinion about Sashi Kumar. On the whole, this was a waste of my time. 
13. Jai Ganesh: I was so disappointed by Unni Mukundhan in Garudan that I had to watch a movie where he is not a bad guy. But the character he is playing in this movie is too complex for him to portray and he ends up hamming through the role. Since he is stuck to the wheelchair through the movie, he does not get a chance to beat up people. So, he has to act but that is not his forte. The theme of the movie is reasonably good. But as usual the scientific concepts thrown through the movie sound quite iffy (Chlorine gas becomes poisonous when a child is exposed to it for 12 hours not 11 hours and 58 minutes but exactly 12 hours). I think it is not a movie worth spending one’s time on though it is not really a bad movie, like ‘Garudan’ or ‘Malayalee…’.
14. Journey of Love 18+: The theme of this movie is outright terrible. It justifies everything from (nearly) underage  marriage to women having pills to keep their period away. I found it inappropriate on many occasions. The movie uses a caste based issue as a justification for all the nonsense. Yet, when looked at as a medium for entertainment, it is funny and moves along very well. The story appalled me and yet I laughed at the comedy. It is a great case for how story telling forms the crux of a movie. I should not have watched this movie or should have at least stopped watching it half way but I did not.
15. Tamilikku en onnai azhuthavum: This movie was well received by critics. It has Dinesh and Nakul on the poster and I did not really care for either of them. But for variety of content I decided to watch it. It is an interesting movie, which is inspired by many non-linear narrations that came earlier. It is not well made though. The attempt to mix in humour with serious siutation makes it annoying to watch. It had to be an edge of the seat thriller and the humour had to be subtle. But most of the humour is on the face and plain stupid. This made the movie tiresome in the second half. The ending was absolutely terrible and unintentionally laughable. I don't think it was worth a watch.
16. A Haunting in Venice: I wanted to watch a movie of the thriller genre and so I picked this. I had watched Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express, a few years back and liked it.  I also remember fondly, the series Poirot that I had watched many decades back in Doordarshan. So I gave this one a shot. I enjoyed it. It was spooky and went smoothly. The person responsible for the crimes did not come as a surprise but the flow of the movie is interesting and more than the revelation the reason becomes more important by the end of the movie. I liked the fact that in the end, I was not clear if the supernatural element had a part to play in the movie or not. 
17. Death on the Nile: 'A Haunting in Venice' had some reference to this movie. This movie also had some identifiable people in the star cast like Gal Gadot and Ali Zafar. This movie was well received too. It is a good watch. Once again the ultimate villain and scheme did not surprise me. But the build up to the revelation is good. As a plus, the movie is set in Egypt, which is always a pleasure to watch. A good thriller. I am running out of movies in Prime, XStream and HotStar. I think I have to start on NetFlix.
18. Bose - Dead/Alive (Series): Damn it! I got conned into watching this. I thought this is a movie but it is a series from Ekta Kapur factory. It's not bad. It has Rajkumar Rao, who is convincing as Bose. The series is watchable. I really liked the background score. It covers a lot of ground, from Bose's early life to his presumed death and his presumed life after his presumed death. So it rushes through the scenes and ultimately leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction. The English and German characters speak in Hindi with an English accent, which should have been terribly cheesy but surprisingly I did not find it so. It also ends abruptly. The last part of the series covers a lot of ground with words written on the screen and a background narrator explaining it. The series had to be atleast twice as long for it to do justice to the material.

Superstitions

The boy was considered the brightest one in the family; not just in the current generation but for many generations past. He stood first in the class. He knew everything about everything. He did not talk much but when he started talking, he talked for a long time. He was current with current affairs. He could recite the names of Prime ministers and Presidents of 67 countries. He excelled in maths and physics. He excelled in chemistry and biology too. He did not like history and geography but consistently stood first in the class in these subjects too. He stood first in all the subjects in all the tests and exams that he has attended since he started attending test and exams. He was good at sport... No, that's not true. 

When he was seven, on the sports day, the PT master forced his name into the list of high jump contestants. He informed the PT master that he had never done a high jump in his life. He should have said, he had never participated in any sport or physical activity earlier. But, that would not have made any difference to the PT master. The master was not interested in history and as a result was not aware of the beginnings of civilization and movement of homo sapiens from hunting to farming. It goes without saying that the PT master had no awareness of the renaissance and the industrial revolution. For him, homo sapiens, whom he referred to as man, still lived in the jungles and had to run and jump tall and short hurdles to save himself from an approaching tiger or to bring down a deer to feed himself. So he did not take heed of the boy's words. He responded "High jump is easy. You see that bar kept at a height. You have to run till that and jump above it as soon as you reach close to it. When I look at you, I think you can at least clear one and half metres." The boy did not seem convinced. "But I don't know how to jump". The master retorted "What nonsense! Everyone knows how to jump. Now, you jump and show me." The boy jumped a few centimetres off the ground. The master felt disappointed. "You bend your knees and then push yourself off the ground like this." The PT master's jump was ten times higher than the boy's. "Ok, you practise here." Before the boy could react the master had moved away.

Thirty minutes later, the boy heard his name being called out. The boy tentatively walked to the high jump area. The master waved at him and shouted "Run!" The boy ran slowly towards the starting point. The master asked him to take his position for the jump. The boy stood and looked at the high jump bar, which was placed higher than he expected. He turned towards and attempted to ask the master "is that one and half metres?" But the master cut him off with a "Be quiet". So he continued to stare at the bar. In a few seconds, he was startled by the master blowing the whistle. He looked at the master perplexed. The master shouted "Go! Jump!" The boy started running. The master shouted "Faster, faster". The boy ran faster. The master shouted "Faster, faster". The boy ran faster. The master shouted "Why are you walking? Run!" The boy ran faster. The master said "Run, run, run!" The boy ran faster. He had nearly reached the high jump bar when he heard the master shout "Stop! Don't jump." But it was too late; the boy had started his jump. It was not much of a jump. The high jump bar was in line with his mouth. He saw the bar rushing towards him and involuntarily pushed out his hands. The bar hit his palms and flew away. In the process, he saved his mouth from injury. Couple of seconds later, he landed on the sand pit with his hands stretched out still. He spent the next two months with both his hands in the cast. Since then, he avoided sports days, sports field, games period and any sort of physical activity at school, including march past for Independence Day. 

One summer vacation, a few years later, his extended family decided to visit a Hanuman temple some two hundered kilometres from his home. The temple was situated on a hill. The boy was not interested in visiting the temple or climbing the hill. But he was eager to spend time with his cousins. They were in total awe of him and he looked forward to the display of his mental abilities to this appreciative audience. The train journey from thier home town to the location of the temple, was noisy and chaotic. Every member in the family was involved in conversing with one or more members of the family. This made it difficult for people to listen to each other. As a result, everyone started talking at a higher decibel level than usual. This made the conversation a lot more difficult, which made the people talk even louder till a point where people could not talk any louder and no one heard everything the other person said. If someone had the ability to record such a conversation, the resulting conversation would have made no sense at all. As an example, the conversation in a group that consisted of two uncles and one aunt of the boy went thus. The uncles are referred to as u1 and u2 and the aunt as a1.

Note: To safe gaurd the identity of the individuals involved in this conversation names of people and places are not mentioned. The words 'this ' and 'that' are used instead.

u2: What happened to that person's son?

u1: Yes, the sun is shining bright. It's very hot.

a1: Its very annoying. I don't know why she can't take care of that child! The boy keeps whining already.

u1: Not just wine, rum and whisky too.

u2: Run away! With whom? Isn't he too young?

u1: Not just two. Sometimes three or four times a week.

a1: No, no, no. That boy is not weak. The mother pampers him.

u1: Yes. He gets a lot of gift hampers from his suppliers. Every one of them has alcohol in it.

u2: You mean they are not married yet! Who is hampering the marriage?

a1: That boy is aged enough to be mature. What do you mean immature?

u1: Oh! I don't know much about alcohol. I am not sure if he like aged ones or not.

In this manner the conversations continued. One can notice that each member of the group took feed from other members in the group but each of them was talking about a topic which had no connection with the other's topics. Every one came out of the journey with a lot of misinformation but for them the 'mis' part got missed in the din.

Meanwhile, a group of cousins crowded around the boy and listened to him intently. This was not a discussion. The boy talked and the others listened. The listeners were so awed by the boy that they did not dare to utter a word even if they had something to say or ask. The boy talked about physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, sociology, anthropology, cinema, books and many other topics. He was so confident in everything he said that he seemed like an expert in all the topics that he talked about. The boy did not talk loudly; he never talked loudly, he was always composed. Yet the noise of the surroundings did not bother this group. They sat in a circle with their heads touching each other. It seemed like the words from the boy travelled to through each person's ear to the next. A few children got bored of listening to the boy after an hour or so. But they did not move away from the group as they were worried that they might be considered not intelligent if they did so. Besides, even if they moved out, they could have done nothing but to listen to the adults, which would have been excruciatingly boring. So the boy's audience did not reduce for most part of the trip.

Three hours later, the group got out of the train and stretched themselves in various shapes. Some preferred the over head hand stretch, others the sideways hand stretch, while a few did the bending down and touching the feet stretch, but others... Well, you get the point. Their bodies had shrunk in the cramped space inside the compartment. Now, they tried to unshrink themselves. The temple was at a distance of nine kilometres from train station. The large family travelled the distance in four horse carts. The horse struggled to pull the weight of the members of the family through the distance. But the tips of the whips stinging on their backs was motivation enough for them to continue. After an hour, the horses reached the family's destination. They let out a collective sigh of relief when the people got out of the cart. The cart drivers haggled for additional fare from the family by complaining "Sir, too many people", "Look at my horse sir, its back is nearly broken because of the load", "The wheel sir, it needs fixing now". The accounts manager of the family was unmoved and did not part with a paise more. The cart owners walked dejectedly back to their carts and gently tapped their horse's back. The horses were too tired to appreciate the caring act from their owners. They hung their heads low and stared vacantly at the ground.

The boy looked at the hill and said with disappointment in his voice "That's it! This is the hill! Its small. It is nothing compared to the Tirupati hill". The elders in the family were angered by this blasmphemic statement. "Shhh! Don't say such things", "Hanuman is a powerful god, he will get angry", "Will someone ask that boy to shutup!", "This is what education does to children", "Yes, they no longer respect anyone or anything". The boy ignored the protests and continued to look at the hill disapprovingly. He said to no one in particular "Are you sure this temple is powerful? This hill too small to have a powerful temple." The boys mother held the boy's hand and dragged him towards the steps that led to the top before anyone could react to the boy's statement.

The climb to the temple was not long but the climb was slow as the family was large and old age had caught up with some of the members of the family. The younger ones got impatient at the slow pace of the climb and did not wait for the elders. But they were forced to stop when they heard names being shouted out by their relatives. They complained and waited. The boy sat on the steps and looked around. He saw a troop of monkeys close by. He pointed at them and said "Look monkeys." The children looked at the monkeys with amusements. Like their own family the younger monkeys were jumping around busily from tree to tree while the older ones sat conserving their energy. A few of the younger monkeys were bold enough to come close to the children and then run away. The boy pointed at one of them and said "This one could possibly a great great great great great great grand nephew of Hanuman." The children found the statement amusing and laughed. The young monkey seemed to take objection to the children mocking it and jumped right into the group. The children screamed and ran away. The older monkey felt threatened by the noise and approached the group to take care of the safety of the young monkey. The boy did not move quick enough to get away from the monkey who approached him from above and grabbed at his face. It got hold of his spectacles and jumped away.

The boy shouted "My specs!" The family ran upto him. His mother wrapped him in her arms and said "Oh my God! Are you alright?" A few members of the family coaxed, cajoled and threatened the monkey to give back the spectacles. The monkey ignored them for it was inspecting the spectacles with interest. It did not know what it was or what could be done with it. It wondered if it was a food item and tried to bite into it. The spectacles was too hard and it did not taste like anything it knew. It pointing it towards the ground and looked at it. The lens came between the monkey's eyes and the ground. The sight shocked the monkey. It let out a screech and threw it away. The spectacles fell on the ground below. Two brave aunts retrieved the spectacles. One of them said "One of the lens is cracked but it is usable still." The mother protested "But the monkey bit into it." The boy said "It can be washed. I can't see properly without it." The aunts washed the spectacles thoroughly and wiped it with a towel. They then handed it to the boy who wore it and said "Its not bad. Its usable."

At that moment, one of the children said "Hanuman punished him". Almost immediately the other children agreed and recited the incidents prior to the monkey attacking the group. All the adults in the family looked at the boy accussingly who cowered behind his mother. The mother took hold of his hands and walked ahead. When they were at some distance from the remaining family she said "Why can't to you avoid saying such things?" The boy protested "I was only joking." The mother became angry. "You can't joke about god." The boy said "This is all superstition. It has nothing to do with god." The mother cut him off before he could proceed further "I don't want you open your mouth till we get back home." The boy felt sad and angry. He looked at the ground and walked ahead. He avoided the group from then. The children tried to talk to him but he moved away from them. A few of them apologized but he did not accept the apologies. The older ones in the family tried to talk to him but he did not respond. When his mother offered him food and water, he shook his head and walked away.

An hour later, the family started going down the hill. The boy walked besides his mother quietly. He continued to look at the ground. The mother tried talking to him but he did not respond. When they had reached half way down the hill, the boy suddenly collapsed. The mother screamed his name and the sothers crowded around him. A number of medical advices flowed from the different members of the family. The mother sprinkled water on his face. The boy opened his eyes and looked at the people around him. He felt confused "What happened?" The mother with tears flowing down from her eyes said "Thank god! You are okay." The boy said "I want water." The mother gave him the water bottle. He sat up and drank some water. His father said "You have not eaten or drank water for a long time." The mother said "I offered them to you many times. Why did you not eat or drink?" He looked at his mother confused "You are the one who told me to not open my mouth till we reach home. How can I eat or drink without opening my mouth?" Everyone laughed. The troublesome eldest uncle of the family said "This is what happens when you make fun of God. Why did you unnecessarily compare this hill with Tirupathi hills?" Everyone looked at the boy accussingly. The boy closed his eyes and thought "Another five years, I am escaping this mad family. I will get admission in that college and stay in the hostel. I will never ever come back to this family."