A soap opera

This column is a particularly sentimental and sloppy post, so any unruffled reader is earnestly requested to refrain from sneering and casting nasty remarks. Eccentricity shall hopefully prevail tomorrow and this particularly vulnerable moment will pass. With a flourish of my hat (adorned with a pink feather), I invite all the brave ones to continue reading.


Well, I had a fight with my mum and dad today. They’re really grumpy now (which, as regulars will know, is pretty normal). The troubling bit is that I’m grumpy too which makes the fight kind of pointless because my spectacular tantrums are generally the residue of a particularly ugly quarrel with my friends(s). So when all the annoyance finally reaches boiling point – I explode – with really magnificent results. Then, regret manifests itself and I’m left mumbling apologies to my glaring mum. Pathetic.
Today’s ritual had its raggedy origins in the universal irritant i.e. my studying or rather, lack of it. After the shouting had subsided (a source of amusement for our highly fascinated neighbors, rivaling any weepy soap on television), I banged my door shut with a deafening thump. My mum responded by turning up the television volume and subsequently torturing me with the miserable dialogues. Ah well, she’s had her revenge.
And so, as I bang away on my keyboard (occasionally swearing when the keys get stuck), the waves of remorse are already washing away my self righteous anger and sense suddenly dawns with dazzling radiance. So poof! All my pretended dignity vanishes in a flash. I’m back to mumbling apologies. My mum gives a long-suffering sigh and returns to stuffing something that looks horribly like brinjals back into the fridge, brandishing them like a sword to wave me away. I take that for forgiveness and trot away. Mission successful.
And yeah, this ceremony (dreadfully familiar to all teens suffering the agonies of tenth) will persist for the months to come. And maybe, a day will dawn when I’m NOT at fault. When my mum comes up to me, hugs me and says ‘I’m so sorry sweetheart’. No shrieks about my tee stinking. Perhaps only a withering look at my flyaway hair. And an enormous smack on the cheek thrown in. Boy, I’d enjoy that.
Castles in the air, some would say. An impossible dream. An unattainable delusion. Well, I respond to all the sniggering skeptics, ‘every geek has her day’. Bill Gates had his when he contemplated Microsoft. Apple had theirs when the iPod revolution was launched. My flabbergasted teacher had hers the day she managed to shout me down in class. Oh well, I’m patient. Are you listening, God?