“I … Oh, that?…. No-no-no-not you. Do you that lady? She’s my mother…” Once again  I was picking on a perfectly unknown person. The man followed my finger and gazed at the lady. I do not know what happened to my finger… In a blink of the eye, the lady had turned towards us and saw this man staring her.  She started advancing towards us. I thought I’d be safer I did not allow my presence in this area anymore-at least not now.  I ran, leaving the man thrown fate … I could hearaloud’SLAAASH feminine hand, striking masculine cheek. …”

Dr. Ghai banged the book shut.It still had a hundred chapters to be read. He got in his car and drove to Sonu’s house. The house was a perfect one for a medium-class family He pressed the door-bell. Son’s first father came out:

“Doctor? Come … come in! we owe you a lot of Thanks for saving our son’s life!“

“Yes.. yes.. .that tumor was nothing. But there something more serious… “

“What?” yelled Mr. Nathan, “another operation?” 

“No … We’ll discuss it inside.” 

The atmosphere after six minutes was perfect for a silent talk. The juices had been drunk, jokes had been cracked just to ease off the pressure) and most important of all, Sonu was out. 

“Have you seen suspense or horror films lately?” Dr. Ghai asked abruptly … 

“Why? We see such films almost every weekend. My family is an avid lover of suspense films,” Mrs. Nathan replied. 

“Do you watch the news?”

“Of course. At five in Hindi, at eight in English and at ten in Tamil. ”

“Oh! I see. Now, have you ever discouraged Sonu?”

“Not exactly, but he gets a sound thrashing if he gets low marks.”

“Now, I see the problem,” the doctor mumbled, “I’ll tell you what. Seeing so many suspense films have been him into a suspicious young leaf. Why he even hears time-bombs in wrist-watches! He suspects everyone who passes by because you do nothing but watch news on the telly. Okay … You should watch it. But give some time to your child too. The effect of so much corruption and greed shown on TV. has taken roots into Sonu’s mind. He is only six and this is the time when a child’s brain is molded. Do not thrash him too much. It makes him feel as if he is disliked by everyone and so the only thing he finds to make himself attractive is to behave like a clown.

I guess you have understood me? This is the problem. “

After some commercial-free pause, 

Mr. Nathan opened his mouth:

“Thanks a lot for opening our eyes. We’ll try our best to remove these notions from Sonu’s mind. Thank you. But how did you find all this?”

 “Oh?” Mr. Ghai smiled “by borrowing books from the brain!”