tHe BiRtH oF a FaTHer!!

(straight out of ma sisters writing pad) 

Aniyathi (sis): Brownieee!!! That’s it!! I liked it!!
Appoppan (grandpa): nay!! It sounds christian!! Why can’t it be say hmm...ehh...hmm...pachu, bhasi!!
Aniyathi: cmmon appoppa!! Think broad!! You know dhanya rite, during a family function at her home, she louded at full throat... "kuttappaaa", and catastrophically two heads turned almost simultaneously, one our very own kuttappan, and the other her mothers, father in laws, younger bro "THE KUTTAPPAN". Younger bro was furious being clubbed with that cute little canine and that day nearly saw the end of a loving model family!! So forget about the common popular man’s name and pls don’t attach any religion to it...let it live an atheist!!
Me: diii, but brownie is too unglamorous a name?? Let’s go for something trendier!! I liked pachu more than brownie!!
Aniyathi: da no interference!! See mom first spoke to me about the little German shepherd's home coming!! It’s me who got the news first, so naturally I do have some rights. Furthermore I am ready to be its full time caretaker...bathing, playing an all doggy stuffs!!
If you can do all this, you can call him by your name!! I mean by the name u choose!!
She herself knew I won’t ever reply to such a deal...so brownie was set!! Appoppan was also silenced, he sensed his losing wield of power in the silliest of silly homey things!!
we all sat at varandah waiting for amma and our nue co. I thought how fast life changes for people. It all started with that Saturday morning call from my mom’s office. aniyathi did the talk:
""ye amma...
waaatt!! Yes Pls amma we need him...
Don’t worry about achan, i will make tat rite!!
Bring him fast!!
bro,He’s sleeping!!
appoppan with us.. No more talking bring him fast!!""

Mom was soon at our gate with the carton carrying the symbol of a veterinarian (transferred to some far flung pattikadd) show of gratitude for the unending support my mom’s bank did for him...Amma gave me the carton and stepped in the auto and rushed back to office. I kept it down and slowly opened the lid!! It was one big mayhem after that!! The small pup just rocketed off from the carton. Aniyathi was outdone by this ferocity and with a deep shriek, resisted gravity and was at the top of a sofa in no time. First impressions from whatever little I saw were next to dismal. It looked nothing more than a moving bunch of bones, deprived, malnourished. The only attractive things were its pointed ears, black patches here and there and it’s mighty half a ton tail!! The restless and insane pup bit me a thousand times that day and kathu remained airborne for the rest of the day. In between whenever he crapped and looed, I locked him inside some room and as was decided “brownie’s caretaker” aniyathi did the clean ups. The increased frequencies of cleaning meant kathu roam the rest of the day, with a broom on one hand and dettol on the other!! Anyhow the pup completely shook all our conventional thinking about them, they aren’t the soft, chubby, non aggressive creatures we tag them with...May be brownie is different. Being the son of an aristocratic thorough bred German shepherd and a roadside mongrel, it was only natural that a refined persona was something of an over expectation!!
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3 yrs later...me, aniyathi n brownie all grew. Mom felt that among we three, brownie grew the fastest and was the most disciplined and refined of the lot!!

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I was home after a few months.
Mom came in, hugged an complainingly asked "da, never come home..be at that wretched hostel..Smells disgusting!!"
I simply love her for her nagging. After exchanging the common dose of pleasentries and gossips with mom, I turned my eye over others...
Am I seeing a depleted family?? Yupp!!! where is brownie??
hmmm..aniyathi who was till then "i donno where" came in!!
"da it went missing..i mean it went missing jus in front of my eyes..@ afternoon to be precise.its almost 8 hrs now..Someone had left the gate open and this son of a bitch escaped when his den was accidently opened!!”
I fumed "why didn’t u go for the search??”
Kathu shot back “I did a small scale combing operation but think it’s at least some kms away!! Since you were coming today, I thought let it enjoy the freedom until then.”
Amma quipped "da go get him. I will serve you dinner after that!!"
That was cruel from moms part but okk I need to know that we are all living in an unkind incentive loaded world. So I got ready for the midnight search operation. Got into my moms scooty and dashed off to the bleakly lit street. I honked and revved hard, my own invented ways of attracting the senses of a lost brownie. He knows all the sounds of our home.
I had travelled almost a km by then...the Devi kshethram and the kaavu were now clearly evident. Still there was no sign of brownie. Another 5 or ten minutes...
Suddenly saw some movements under the wired fence along the kaavu .it’s a secluded place; swampy and with thick vegetation. A four legged creature emerged. I immediately turned ma scooty and prepared for the return...But to my dismay it wasn’t brownie but amminni. Our next door freewheeling, country roaming female canine!! I was dejected!!
The hungry me, roared with all hopelessness... brownieeeeeeee!!
As if hearing my desperate call, brownie emerged out from under fence. I without any wait, vroomed my gaadi towards home. The honking was still on. Brownie on his part turns foolish at times. This was another of his tryst with folly!!
Whenever I keeps honking and speed the vehicle, he feels am challenging him for an open race. I never really tried to correct him either. Once the race starts he chases me with all his might and seldom overtakes. I lost many times before, but tonight it was different and I was in no mood to lose!! I raced so hard that, the sleeky scooty transferred shakes of the magnitude of a richter scale 6.2 onto my body...anyways I did my best and got in to the widely opened gates of our home first. Brownie finished may be a couple of secs behind. And as soon as brownie entered, from the edge of his eyes, saw the movement of the gates. aniyathi plays her role of gate trapper to perfection every time this kind of episode reels at our home. brownie realising his folly braked hard and tried to do a u turn. But it was too late. He looked miserable. His eyes were blood red and body was mud soaked beyond recognition. The tail tip was kissing the ground and the face revealed the guilt for his "without your permission" escapade. Dad, the genial do gooder, entered the scene with a meter long vadi... wristy whips and the "i am sorry" howls ensued! After uncomplainingly accepting half a dozen of dads brutal whips, brownie scurried towards his cage...Dad followed and tried a few whips inside the cage too...brownie now was losing all his poise and gave out some very strong verbal cues demanding an end to the whole hit drama..
dad, a bit frightened, bit tired, understood that brownie meant "that’s enough, I now need rest". dad threw the vadi away and roared “the fellow is turning more and more spoilt now. See how he started protesting after a few hits!! No food and water till further say!!”
but dad can’t act rude..after a few minutes he himself fed him food!! brownie cleaned the plate in a jiffy and wagged the tail in a pardon me tone....
the long night ended!!

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after a long time away from home, I was home again..
Full family greeted me at the door!!
Brownie had added lot more flesh now.
aniyathi said "come bro..will show u something And pulled me to our neighbour sharada chechis home. she pointed towards the back of the house..the skeletal black amminni was there with... her little new born pups!!
sharada chechi came out and said both are male. Projected both of them to us...One was black and skeletal and the other...
A brown, black nosed, prominent tailed pup!! I looked at aniyathi and asked is it brownies --???
Kathu retorted, Yupp. I am sure they have brownies Y chromosomes!!
Remember the 8 hr bunk he did the last to last time you visited.
I was excited beyond measure. Brownie jr was all brownie. Was barking at amorphous sounds. He was more of the same brownie that came to our home 4 yrs back. I went in to sharadechi home, Played with the pups saw them drinking milk from their moms stomach. It was all great. When I returned I felt a new high for brownie. He is a man now!! I slowly ran my fingers through his face and torso...I knew that I had started respecting him...

“kathu, did he see his sons”
“No may have heard their sound, there happens a bit of communication across the wall b/w amminni and brownie. But am sure he hadnt seen them.”
“cmmon kathu, Let’s show him his family...We won’t take him there. That may seem intrusive...so let’s take him to the terrace and show him his sons and wifey from there.”
We took him to terrace and rested him along the parapet and made him stand on his two legs. sharadechis home was now visible to all three of us and we showed brownie, his wife amminni and their two sons..Brownie breathed hard. Looked heavenwards and widened his eyes towards his separated fly. Brownie jr, “the Mr incredible”, looked up at us and started his irritable barking. brownie gave a slow peaceful cry in reply. amminni who was till then lying with her back to us, stood up and turned sharply..She then passed a high frequency cry in return...Brownie jr and his bro were a bit confused and the jr again sent out a "who the bloody hell" bark @ brownie..
Brownie looked sullen and immediately amminni gave a sharp reprisal to the jr "hold on u bloody...It is...it is your paa"
Both the pups were silenced and gave respectful bow down to their paa. Brownie too was in the midst of silence...me and aniyathi too were dragged into this emotional vortex...brownie once again looked skyward and slowly started to push himself away from the wall. he slowly uncomplainingly started walking towards the terrace door..
Just then aniyathi called out "brownie...Sorry we are helpless...we can’t unite you with them"
Brownie heard it, gave a small tail wag and entered our home...I was speechless and I did saw a drop of moist in his eyes!!