My Dad’s Visits to America by Neethu Prasanna

My Dad’s Visits to America

Neethu Prasanna

They say, India: That is a mini world; And when my dad used to visit me, a mini India used to come along with him, hooking the fish of it in a dilapidated banana leaf, wearing an uncanny

urgency to come first, slum in the armpits pushing the heat out, coalescing into a cologne, blocked somewhere between inners and a blazer. Surge of pickles about to burst, contained well within

the pots by shackles, tapes, whacked by batons, belans, silenced even in peak altitudes to look like nothing ever happened. Ankle-torn socks covered with elite Woodland shoes, whose last letter is a t

instead of a d which nobody can really spot, other than me, since he had bought me many Adidaz, Pume and Tommy Hilfigr before. Jingle of aluminium molds, which are the future of a thousand

idlis, smoke and love, absorbed by spongy electronic carriers and wires; Never shown to the mist or the skies since they’re born are the fries, the fritters, taken the shapes of triangle or square in cartons, in tiffin

boxes, wrapped around by one round of paper, one round of silver foil, still oozing out their curiosity through the multi pads of cotton towels, touching every possible untouchables; For every hour that he couldn’t

kill, for a missing headset wire, for an occupied lavatory, the back-pedaling it gives, for a waning boundary, it’s unstoppable anxiety, for a sudden lift, a doodle was donated to his servant’s son’s experience certificate. His

dexterity with tight knots is remarkable. In spite of all the turbulences, it kept the adult’s night creams and children’s DVDs, well within their territories, though both were compartmentalized in the same bedsheet.

How much time he could have taken to send back with the driver, that excess baggage which included my books, some grains, all nodding happily in the trunk, having sent a deity, agarbattis and a mini pooja mandir abroad?