A hectic Friday.

Dateline 26 May.

It was a leisurely morning and by 10, we - Lekha, Mini and I – were off to Kottarakkara. Mini had to collect a few clothes she’d given last week for stitching, a few purchases and the fuelling of the car. We did everything, except that it was in the reverse order of sequence and finally, had settled down at Letha’s place. It was also to help me complete my blogging and other pending work on my laptop!

Sanil, meanwhile, had taken our caretaker’s car to go to nearby Pattazhi to get his quota of Bacchus’ bubbly for the day. It was simply audacious!

We returned half an hour before lunchtime after a visit to the department store for grocery for tomorrow’s party when Ammu and Mithun call on us! They’ll have to be fetched up from Kollam, early in the morning.

Rema had returned from Paravoor, after lunch and all of us, together, tried to put up a strategy to tackle Sanil’s announcement yesterday. Our first decision was to wait for him to get sober so that we could tell him a few harsh truths beginning with our objection to him living separately from Mini and opting for a live in relationship with someone else without seeking a divorce! And Mini was pretty clear that she would not ask for it to avoid legal hassles.

Mini’s friend, Sindhu and her husband, Radhakrishna Pillai were our guests for the evening. The former has been reinstated by the MGM School - which had ousted her three years back - on the basis of an order from the High Court. It was a case vigorously pursued by her husband who’d decided to go hammer and tongs at the management, that had played a dirty game. They’re pretty sure that Mini would easily win the case against her ouster on pure technical reasons! I’ve decided to prod Mini into taking up the case and tackle the management’s high handedness!

Meanwhile, the ‘legal heirship certificate’ that me and my sisters had applied for at the Village office, last week, has reached the Taluk office – Rema had checked it at Pathanapuram and instructed the ‘deputy tahsildar’, who, in turn, had sent it to the Government Press which will eventually publish the gazette notification that will publicise our relationship with mom! The whole exercise is gonna take two months from now.

After our strategy to tackle Sanil’s suggestion had been finalised by late evening, it was a boisterous supper though, Sanil lay inebriated and dead to the world thanks to a heavy dose of the bubbly.

Tailpiece.

I’ll have to convey it in a no-nonsense manner to the protagonist, tomorrow, when he’s totally sober and am anticipating a whiplash. Or will it be tame? It will depend on the effectiveness and tone of my conversation!