CHAPTER 4: HOW PINK WAS MY VALLEY
M examined the sudden thought that popped up, and left it at that. He was busy. He needed to prepare for the aftermath of the VV comment.
And he was right. He did have to do a lot of preparation for that. IF was burning. The VV statement was being pushed down VB's throat at every step. Mini was ecstatic, that VB was falling so easily into his trap. Mini's popularity was at its peak.
Mini was being lauded as the fairest, most honest and incorruptible man ever. Anna Hazare's popularity was being undermined. Opportunistic business men started printing T-shirts which said "Venom Vendors Rule" or IF= Brown Admi Society ( BAS), or BBQ ❤️. Some also said Mini for King.
M found all of this rather silly. But the popular sentiment differed. The T-shirts were lapped up, and were proudly worn.
VB was tense all the time. Q's efforts to cheer him up by dancing to Chikni Chameli and Balam Pichkari (in the Salsa style) alternately, didn't cheer him much. He did watch the dance though, since it was almost impossible to look away when Q danced.
VB kept repeating the same things. He kept throwing Mini into prison in the hope that he would stop. But the result was exactly the same. Each time.
On one such evening, VB summoned M. M walked towards the palace. The weather was beautiful. The sun was setting, and the whole city was bathed in a pinkish glow. The heavy scent of jasmine hung in the air from the creepers along the palace walls. M paused for a moment and closed his eyes and breathed in the fragrance. When he opened his eyes, he saw the baby pink curtains hung in VBQ's bedroom. Were the curtains always baby pink he wondered. He had never noticed then before. But today they seemed to stand out and seemed to be telling him something.
He mentally shook himself. What was happening to him? Curtains wanting to tell him something? What? That they were being hung and wanted to be saved? Nonsense!!! He was losing his mind. This Mini thing was taking a toll on him.
He continued on his way. At the entrance to the palace, he saw a big baby pink flower arrangement. It seemed huge and seemed to dominate the room. He stood and stared. He didn't remember seeing any flower arrangement of any colour there. He quickly looked away before the flowers too tried to tell him something.
He quickly ran up the stairs to VB's room without looking anywhere. He knocked and entered. VB was looking drawn and upset. Q looked up at him. "You certainly look in the pink of health", she said. "And poor VB is wasting away."
M ignored the pink in the sentence and stared at her. She had clearly finished another dance session and she glowed and her cheeks were flushed pink. " Oh Damn!!! What's with the profusion of pink today?" he thought.
"I am ok Q," he said. "But VB, why are you upsetting yourself like this? We will find a way out of this?"
"When?" asked VB. "The Oderators are upset. They are telling me they don't want to continue in the role. Members are upset since they cannot perform any activity in peace. Every day, there are fights going on in the town hall. Other kingdoms outside are laughing at us."
M refrained from pointing out that he had warned VB about this when he was setting up the new tasks. But even he could not blame VB completely, because even in his wildest dreams, he had not imagined that there would be these rabble rousers who created havoc just for their enjoyment. Plus he felt a little bad looking at VB's plight.
He told VB that he would figure out something soon. That this was his top priority and that it would get resolved.
On his way back, he noticed palace had a huge pond bang in the middle of the courtyard, filled with baby pink lotuses...which for some reason he hadn't noticed before too. He also realized that only the things with a pink hue stood out that day, and everything else seemed to be fading into the background.
He firmly dismissed these thoughts and felt that a good night's sleep would rid him of all these silly notions.
He however had a fitful sleep. His dreams were filled with pink clouds, pink pigs, pink ice-cream and a pink cheeked Q.
Morning arrived with the news that there was some new issue in the town hall. M rushed to see what was happening. On the way he noticed baby pink strawberry milk shake being sold in a shop, little girls eating baby pink cotton candy at a park, some girls trying on baby pink lipstick while proclaiming that it was Brown's favourite colour, and some baby pink balloons flying high.
So he wasn't cured as yet, he realized, but decided to think about this later. As he reached the town hall, he realized that this time it was not Mini who was the centre of attention. He was there standing in one corner (wearing a baby pink shirt for crying out loud!!) looking supremely bored.
M looked away and asked what the problem was. Apparently the Brown Admis (BA) were upset. They alleged that Brown Haters (BH) (chiefly from Minis group) were tailing them where ever they went. Apparently when they were in their Brown pavilion, these tailers (yes! they were being called that!!!!!) would camp outside behind bushes and trees and spy.
M was flummoxed. Was there never an end to this, he wondered. He wondered aloud what the ..err..tailers...would get by tailing and spying. Apparently they got some kind of satisfaction to find out what was being spoken about them. And apparently they would carry this news to other BH camps, where they would then proceed to taunt and mock the BAs. M was disgusted, and tired and thoroughly fed up (plus he had this weird pink thing going on). He advised the BAs to tail the tailers, and come back and then mock and taunt them.
He walked away from there determined to ask VB for a raise. He stumbled on a stone and tripped and fell into the arms of a beautiful woman wearing a baby pink dress and they stared at each other for a few minutes as per the norms. He then excused himself, and went on his way. He wondered if that had really happened or if he was going mad.
He reached home, and switched on his TV. The song, " Shaam gulabi, Shehar gulabi" blared. He switched off the TV and decided to examine this Pink Puzzle, and understand what was going on.
One way or the other, he would get to the bottom of this pink pulse in his brain.
Note: Anything written in bold italics are things which will come back to bite VB in his backside.
Note2: Any resemblance to people living/dead/virtual is purely co-incidental.
Next Chapter: The simple (sly) solution
Kumkum Bhagya
Mahadev And Sons
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