(More from Kadalil.)
I waited at my seat outside the tea-stall watching the same old play on the same old stage. Life went on as usual. Like clockwork, the drunkard appeared outside the bar around ten in the only way he could face the world any day, swaying and inebriated. His wife too entered the scene at the right cue. The pleading gave way to loud wailing and the beating of the chest and the head ensued, as if by rote, and his slap too. It was all too much for me. I just couldn’t allow that show to go on.
I got up from my seat and approached the couple. I shouted at the man and gave him the full sermon within me. It took a while for him to shift his dazed drunken gaze towards me. He looked at me as if I was a madman. I focused on the man and I did not notice when his wife stopped wailing. I should have kept an eye on that aggrieved party and I realized that quickly when my back suffered a barrage of hard slaps.
I turned around to face her flailing arms. She multitasked effectively, beating, shouting loudly and berating me. She accused me of abusing her and trying to harm her dear life, namely, her husband.
It was my turn to have a dazed look. A highly amused crowd gathered around us.
The woman refused to give up, and even seemed to gain in volume and indignation. I kept on moving backwards, trying to avoid her. I tried to reason with her. Or to be factually right, as I started on that endeavor that frail woman gave me a firm shove.
I, along with my reasoning, went into free fall. I tripped and fell back into a shallow pit by the side of the road. It wasn’t much of a fall and I should have escaped with just an injured mind. But, caught unawares, I landed heavily and clumsily, feeling every pebble that greeted my backside and worse, twisted my ankle too.
It would have been better if I had hit my head and passed out with a concussion. I would not have had to see that woman’s rather happy face before she walked away with her equally blissful comrade-in-arms. The crowd didn’t give up that easily. I really tickled their funny bone.
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