Dedicated to my House Owner & family

I thought I should dedicate one to the honour of the unique specimens that constitute the household in whose property I have taken temporal residence in a Chennai suburb. The venomous patriarch of the house, called the owner, happens to be a retired school teacher and I recall the day when he met me, showed me around the house and keenly sized me up with his glare before acceding to accept a single, thirty something guy into his hallowed ground. Counter-reading his eyes I figured out that he was searching for extraneous cues concerning my character and motives, little aware that I possessed the art of smooth talking and evasive answering (still in my passive repertoire of retrievable skills from my pre-salvation days) to present myself sparkling clean before anyone, though I could have even wallowed in the mire just moments earlier. This Indian citizen's interpretation of "freedom is my birthright" is to express it in the manner of his loitering around the house in nothing but his strategically perforated briefs (fondly called "uncles' atrocious undies"). The very sight of this almost naked sexagenarian walking the turf with his otherwise fully wrapped wife in contrast is a sheer stress buster of sorts after a busy day at work.

Now, his two married male wards are gifted with what I call, roving x-ray eyes which prowl on me to ensure that I am not drooling at or checking their spouses out. While I agree that it is quite expected a behaviour on the wards' part, I hope I am forgiven this deviant statement that...it sure takes some darn guts to assume that this blog-writer is so deprived and starved so as to stoop down in his instincts to desire after what at best appears as gnarled and charred remains of burnt corpses. So, I fittingly responded to their sense of insecurity by closing out all windows as a practice and have, in a way, almost sealed them permanently shut never to be opened again since I have gotten the house thoroughly air conditioned in recent times. Nonetheless, a daily see-saw battle continues, with the younger ward appearing only all too interested to have me ensnared by any means, not aware that "my life is safely and securely hid with Christ in God".

This blog however, will not be complete without mentioning the most hyperactive and expressive member of the house, Tiger, the watch cum pet dog. A ten month old over-grown Rajapalayam pup that he is, he is my present love interest who wins my heart over and over again with his endearing whines, unsolicited licks and love bites. Snow White as I would like to call him, with an imposing appearance that belies his age still performs poorly at bladder control, often relishing to let himself loose over his favorite piss-pot in the whole house, the curtain on my front door. It seems like he has evolved a peculiar liking towards soft objects over the common doggie-affinity for harder objects like car tires and tree trunks for the urinal and, on occasions has gone the length of trading even his chewing bones in exchange for my shoes and sandals much to my chagrin.

Together, don't they make one interestingly riotous family thriving on the border of insanity ? Yea, they do.