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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