Friday, June 14, 2013

Private Eye


 
 The day he got promotion, and a handsome raise, he hired a private investigator. For some time, the situation at home had been troubling him. The calm and apparent well-being had become as unbearable as water drip-drip-dripping on the head in some dark desolate dungeon. When the company of his wife and kids was as peaceful as solitude, the threat seemed imminent.
The snoop asked him if he wanted full-day or half-day coverage. He asked for half-day. He thought he could monitor his family’s physical and virtual activities when he was at home. But after a week, when the daily reports did not raise any doubt or suspicion, he changed it to the full-day plan. That did not yield results either. He was fair though. He did note in those reports the easy to miss small gestures of tender love and care from his wife and kids towards him even in his absence. He could not suppress his happiness.
But that did not dull his senses. He knew of the many possible twists in the tale. The private eye could be doing nothing, he thought, other than billing him exorbitantly by the hour. Or they could all be in cahoots with each other. He wondered if his wife would run away with the snoop at the end of the tale. He took leave from office and snooped on the snoop snooping on his family. His endeavors revealed no twist.
As the expenses increased, he had to trust the reports. He terminated the PI’s services. Feeling secure, he enjoyed his family’s company. Seasons changed. Appreciation became mere acceptance. He missed the daily reports. On his own, he could not spot the signals, of threat or of love.
He knocked on the PI’s door once again. But the snoop had closed shop. His dejection dulled his senses even further. If the private eye had run away with his wife, he would have felt less unsure.   

ps. ‘Take a bow, Edward Snowden’, The Hindu, Editorial, June 14, 2013

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