Memory Lane: Pulse! ****************** Dad was indifferent to our requests. This was one of his carefully plotted evil schemes that never failed. We huddled around him with our report cards – urging him to reconsider his promise he’d made less than a month ago. “Katti kich kich gari ra! SLC siddhe pachi kinaula! ” He retorted with the famous line of defense every parent used when they failed to deliver their promise. Alluding to SLC, he had once more plundered our childhood dreams. “K bhayo daddy? Kasto garechan yo pali?” Mom asked wearily after her long day at office. We ran up to her and showed our report cards. Her face glowed with pride. She reached for her handbag and gave us two white-rabbits each. “Maami! Daddy lai bhandinu na! Yo paali ta “Deck" kinne bhanera” I held her saari. She stammered and took a furtive glance at Dad. I knew immediately that she was also involved in this grand design. “Kinula ni babu! Paila timi haroo ko SLC ta siddina de!” I was enraged, stormed to my room and banged the door shut. Why did everything revolve around SLC? For seven mad god’s name, SLC was not even at my distant horizon. I hurled both the report card and the two candies with all my might. They rebounded off the wall while the card floated in the air teasingly before coming to a halt. At that age, all I cared was to have our own "DECK (VCR)" so that we could watch movies we wanted in weekends. Next door, I could hear maami and dad exchange verbal barrage. Be it a middle class plight, or the bulletproof mindgames of our parents, I miserably failed to comprehend either. *************** As the evening wore on, so did my hunger. It would have been easy if I went to mom then and let her win me over. I went on with my isolated rebellion. Instead, I searched frantically for those two white rabbits, found them and munched on them carefully planning my next strategy. I knew maami would come sooner or later to console me and this time I’d have none of it….. To my surpise, I heard cheers of delight from my sisters who made their way into the room. “Oys! Chado aaija. Pawan dai aaunu bhacha! Disc antenna rakhnu bhako raicha.” Pawan dai was our next door neighbor and I instantly understood why he had come. This was our last resort. “La je sukai gara! Pachi padai sadai bigryo bhane malai nabhana!” my dad gave a semi wry smile at maami and a hesitant approval for installing the disc line. “Ani kati euta channels aaucha ni pawan bhai?” “ahile char euta aaucha! V channel, Z tv, Star Plus ra Star sports. Ani ma bida haroo ma naya filim pani lagaidinchu!” pawan dai was a perfect redemption for the evening. It was only a matter of time -- we were hooked to “StarNetwork.” While my sisters inclined towards never ending serials of Z and music videos in V, I was blown away by Crystal Maze, Cluedo, Wonder Years, Raymington Steele in star plus and my first glimpse of Jordan in Star Sports. True to his word, Pawan dai informed us when he put on a recent bollywood blockbuster as well. Even Dad rejoiced at times gloating over the voices of singers he could recognize without even watching. ***************** contd...