Chapter 1: 1987, The Genesis

In an attempt to record the 21 years of my life thus far, I have started this series. I call them “The Damaged Chronicles”, and I must say it feels good to write an autobiography, being a nobody

615 am, Friday What did I ask of my parents as a foetus? A hero’s welcome? No, just a nice name. And what did I get? A shortened version (thankfully) of what my late grandmother suggested -‘Karthikeyan’. Given the circumstances, I did not know whether to laugh or to languish in sorrow as soon I was put out of commission as a foetus. The doctors, misjudging my predicament, took me by my heels and beat me black and blue till I decided to appease them by crying. The brutes…

7 am, Friday Later as I looked up into my mother’s kind face, I wondered if she understood what they had all done to me. Three years from then I would be sitting in a class with 4 other mites bearing the same name. Did they forget my foetal request? Was I being punished for having been a bad foetus? These thoughts troubled me till I slipped into a deep slumber…

12 pm, Friday When I woke up, I heard them whispering that babies smile during sleep because they see God handing em a rose or something     -_-

First they spy on me in my private moments and then they give a gay reason for my smiling. I felt my head throb as I realized I was having another bad day. Need coffee and a smoke…

1 pm, Friday Then came the unintelligible names that added insult to injury. There I was, brooding over the name “Karthik” and people were calling me highly imaginative versions of “pappu”, “pattu”, “rajathi (gay I know)”, “raja (zzz)” etc. Exactly where was this creativity when I needed a proper name on my birth certificate? I even remember someone coming up close to me, peck my cheek and say “meow!! kitten!!!”    -_-    13 years later, remembering the sore incident and with a vague picture of the joker in mind, I would confront Sangeetha (my cousin, 10 years older). I still have a feeling it was her, but she denied it then, saying I looked more like a hippo on Day 1. Zzz…

2 pm, Friday And so without much fanfare (I saw no point in letting the world know of another Karthik’s birth) I was carried home. And there I met someone who would vie with me for space, food, privileges and other assortments that come with being a dependent, for the next 18 years of my life. Maanasa. She was an absolute terror, 2 years old and domineering by nature, she gave me no choice but to back down. So I decided to lay low until I could walk or something you know, and then strike when least expected. Hah! Surviving in the same house with a predator that constantly waited for a chance to pinch my cheek was not easy. But survive I did, using tricks that I learnt over the next 2 years…

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