Samsaara : Devadoot

Riding the Purple Dragon

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The sounds of the mixer grinder chewing the fragrant spices in its steel teeth resounded throughout my house. This happens regularly, at 8 o'clock every morning. It took me over twenty years to realize that my mother does that on purpose. One of her devious ways to wake me up early, apart from switching the ceiling fan off, or playing bhajans on loop.

"Ah Rishaan, I see that you are up," she very innocently spoke.

"Mhm," I mumbled to avoid the rancid aftertaste of my mouth.

"Are you awake or not?" she asked louder than before.

"No, I'm sleep-talking," I said with hints of sarcasm.

"It is already 10A.M. About time you woke up," she said, not knowing that I knew that it was just 8 A.M.

"Alright, I'm up. But what's the problem if I sleep for a bit longer? It's not like I have anything to do right now," I replied.

"That's the whole idea. I found you something to do," she said.

"Yes, I know, I will take the trash out, and go pay the electricity bill," I said.

"Not that, I found you a case," she said.

"What? Really?" I replied as I jumped out of my bed with the enthusiasm of the 'morning people' that I hate so much.

She asked, "You remember Jerry, don't you?"

"Jerry, Joseph Matthew's son," she continued.

I remembered the skinny little twig, always mixing with the hooligans of the locality. Always getting himself into more trouble than he could handle. A classic example of 'biting off more than you can chew'.

"Yeah, what about him?" I asked.

"Well, Joseph uncle said he has not been coming home so often and he smells funny. He also said that the son has been getting more aggressive lately and mentioned that things from his house are regularly missing," she said, "So he asked for you to tail him."

"Great, is this another one of those cases that I don't get paid for," I said with my palm firmly planted on my face.

"Well, it's not like you are getting hundreds of cases anyway. Do a few cases for free, let your private eye business pick up with word-of-mouth. I am making more than enough money for the two of us for now," she jabbed at me verbally

I had to apply some metaphorical aloe-vera gel to soothe the intense burn subjected by the Taunt-master supreme of my home. I replied, "Okay sure, I will look into it."

Jerry used to hang out all day near King Circle, loitering around the newly beautified garden under the bridge. The talk around town was that he had started peddling 'Maal' to any and every one. Our industrious little Jerry boy had found an area, surrounded by enough colleges to have him swimming in clientele. Since he knew me, it would not be wise to see him directly. A distant recon would be the best way to case the 'joint' (pun intended).