Nats and angst management

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Nats thumped on my front door.

The force of thumps indicated to me the shade of anger within Nats's Palette of Rage.

Was it angst-ridden, annoyance, or Avengers-like superhero rage.

I sensed the latter owing to the seismic reverberations my door and its hinges experienced.

Nats entered Kramer-like without the Seinfeld lightness.

"Dude you're telling me that Aryan's jail time, for 27 days… was based on a ‘shoddy probe', Bruh!"

"Morning Nats, welcome! Come in, have some coffee"

"That guy whasisname, who busted Aryan and Rhea… his surname is a cricket stadium?""Wankhede"

"His punishment is a Tamil Nadu posting… howz that a punishment, he'll go to Chennai, sip some rasam, learn Tamil, his missus will buy some kanjeevaram saris and then when it's the right time, he'll slink back to the city."

I tried to give the adult, objective, "what to do this is India" rationale.

"Bruh… I'm 19, when I get to your age, my cynical anger will have settled into your comfortable acceptance, I'll have the rationalisations and the justifications ready. I'll have armchair critic-ed my way to to explain the anarchy… I'll organically don that slight condescending look that sets into your face - dude not now... not yet... may I be livid, like for a few years more?" Nats asked, rhetorically.

"Sure Natasha go ahead. Be angry," I sighed.

Nats' face resembled the different hues of a sunset.

"Aryan's been given a ‘clean chit'… what's a clean chit bruh? You grab a dude from a cruise, accuse him of being a part of an international drug racket, slam him into the slammer…keep refusing him bail, and then months later, you go ‘oops mistake ho gaya' It's ‘obvio' he was a scapegoat!"

Nats sat down, the dark purple streaks of twilight had faded to a burgundy.

"What gets me is when SRK was alone, going from pillar to post… bail application after bail application rejected… the nation went silent. It was eerily silent like a cemetery… the film industry… boom quiet… they nailed the boy on a few WhatsApp messages! And now everyone's bobbing up and down… no one wants the shit to stick to them.How do you pay for the scars that have found their way into Aryan's DNA?"

"Too much angst Nats! Can you calm down?"

"What is too much, Bruh. Are you telling me that you're okay with this?"

"Kiddo, you need to let off some steam. Why don't you meditate?"

"I don't meditate!"

"Why not go for a run?"

"I don't run."

"Go watch a movie then… go to Inox… catch Top Gun-Maverick, it's the sequel to 1986's Top Gun."

When Nats did not like me changing the subject, her face went back to a dodgy pre-monsoon sunset.

"You guys are the same age right?"

"Who?"

"You and Tom Cruise, Pops?"

"Whats that got to do with anything and why you calling me Pops?"

"Like that younger pilot calls Cruise in Top Gun, Pops.''

"Still why you calling me, Pops?"

"Because I'm irritated"

"I'll remind you young lady that he's a vicious little actor, who's into Scientology amidst the superstardom... so take it down a notch!"

Even Nats knew there were boundaries that couldn't be crossed, as the tsunami settled down to a tepid stream.

"I'm horrified at where we are, Bruh, in our history. Frankly, this is our future."

The volcano has mercifully un-lavaed for a bit.

"Talking about Tom Cruise, I tell you, every Tom Cruise movie title has a context here."

"Care to explain?" I asked, now genuinely interested.

"Take any issue we're facing, I'll give you a Cruise flick."

"Okay shoot," I said.

"The targeting of a specific community or communities… MINORITY REPORT," she began.

"Hmmm" I said.

"The levels of corruption today… THE COLOUR OF MONEY… why the Congress can't progress... THE MUMMY… And finally, where we are as a people, a society, as a country, I have a Tom Cruise movie for that too."

"Which movie?"

"MISSION IMPOSSIBLE- ROGUE NATION"

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com