Copyright © 2013 OS and SIS. All Rights Reserved. the Story
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Copyright © 2013 OS and SIS. All rights reserved. The Story (I) INTRODUCTION 2 (II) THE FAMILY IN INDIA, PRIOR TO AMERICA 2 (III) THE BEGINNINGS OF THE FAMILY IN AMERICA 6 (IV) THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, Phase 2: Through AJ completing Graduate School 11 (V) THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, Phase 3: Through AJ’s Frauds on the Family 19 (VI) THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, Phase 4: Through SS’s arrival in America 31 (VII) THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, Phase 5: Through AJ’s First abduction of SS 43 (VIII) THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, Phase 6: Through AJ’s (and NJ’s) Second abduction of SS 53 (IX) THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, Phase 7: The Aftermath to SS’s second abduction XX Copyright © 2013 OS and SIS. All rights reserved. The Story (I) INTRODUCTION “… And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns.” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1, 2) This is the story of a family (“family”) that immigrated to America in the present generation. Its story is told within against the backdrop of all that has gone horribly wrong in this country of late, something America has been evolving (1, 2, 3), almost inexorably, towards for the better part of the past three decade and perhaps more. This ‘all that has gone horribly wrong’ translatable, essentially at its core, in terms of the value system crisis, slip and slide, that preceded its outside skid in tangible terms, most prominently erupting as the dense self inflected injury, known as the 2008 economic tsunami. The incurably dragged out abomination, euphemistically labeled the ‘Great Recession’! The family story is incapable of being severed from its backdrop, for not only did it unfold topically in America as its physical setting, but is attached to it through an umbilical chord described by both family and non-family members, bearing the stamp of contemporary America’s ‘soft’ value system currency, wrecking unholy havoc for it. As such, while ‘Rome burnt’ in America at large, another ‘Rome burnt’ inside the family, torched by insider(s) and outsiders alike. Fact that such torching(s) of, a combination of intended and effective, design, the eternal situational outrage unspeakable in both cases! Extending, the damning legacy of all the perpetrators involved both ways. The irreparable and lasting damage caused, most frivolously and gratuitously, the over-arching corresponding tragedy supreme respectively. Either and both ways, America coming out to look as bad as can be, as rotten as can be! This Awful Thing We Do! - MIDWAY Both elegy and warning, Midway explores the interconnectedness of species, with the albatross on Midway as mirror of our humanity. (II) THE FAMILY IN INDIA, PRIOR TO AMERICA The Sud family (“family”) comprising the father (“Dad (1)”) and four children (Oldest sibling/“OS”, Ajay/“AJ”, Sanjay/“SS” and a sister/”SIS”)! The mother (“Mom”) having passed when SIS was a baby! SIS was raised by her siblings, since Dad (1) worked and had to work. Since, AJ and SS were themselves not old enough really, this effectively meant OS, who raised AJ and SS too. Since Mom was not well for some years, OS raised his siblings even while she lived. In the year after she passed, coinciding with his final year as an undergraduate at college, he completed same degree without ever attending classes. Merely taking exams at the end of the year, having studied all by himself at home. He had to be home with baby SIS, then in the very early afternoon(s) be there also for the other two returning from school. Particularly after Mom’s passing, family servants could not be trusted without supervision. In fact, for a time when they were, OS would come home from college to find baby SIS invariably crying. Then she Copyright © 2013 OS and SIS. All rights reserved. would be fine through the rest of the day. He was to eventually find the servants selling away the baby’s milk and other household staples too. Reason why baby would be crying, when he returned home, on account of having been kept hungry all morning, by the servants having ‘disposed’ off her milk! However, even before she passed and his final year of undergraduate studies, he was unfailingly home for the three siblings past his morning classes at college, Never attended any afternoon classes ever. It was the same during his Masters/Graduate level studies in India. No afternoon classes ever taken there either, to be scrupulously home in time for the sibling kids returning home from school. By the time he ascended to his Masters years, he did not have to stay home all day, since baby SIS had started school by then. All this was no mean sacrifice/1, 2 (3, 4, 5, 6) on OS’s part, for he was no casual college student, attending India’s leading undergraduate college. The family was very serious about education, all four siblings attended prominent New Delhi, British public school prototypes, institutions. Unlike most schools in America, these were single stretch schools, kindergarten through high school in one place itself. OS’s Graduate school in India a serious matter too, but he did what he had to do – all his college years in India, thus, spent studying on his own at home, without ever being able to fully attend classes on his college or university premises ever. Dad (1) on his part raised his children by himself over a long haul, without their mother being around. Always a serious family man, he picked up his part of the slack following his wife’s passing. Long before it became fashionable in America for men to routinely go into the kitchen, Dad (1) did so in the Indian culture so, utterly so far removed/remote from such roles. Starting out as a downright disastrous cook he evolved his way up to become quite, quite proficient, where before and at one time, per very rigorous culture dictates, he knew precious little about any household chores at all. From the moment he returned home from work, as a senior civil servant, he was first in the kitchen, next all evening with the children at their study/homework table (with the TV firmly off) all evening as if foreshadowing President Obama’s recommendations to American fathers so many years later beginning 2008, later in the night supervising readiness of school uniforms and books scrupulously packed by the kinds for the next day, … fifteen minutes with his newspaper before retiring for the day close to midnight. Up at 4 AM, preparing breakfast, supervising bathing and uniform perfections, packing three kinds off to school, … then himself to office, … he did that with soldierly precision and adherence for years and years, with OS’s help in all the remaining areas. OS, who was always at the family dining table and more, without fail all his college years in India; never ever out with friends once the whole time. AJ through middle school was an average and even a most mediocre student. A highly diffident, self doubting and, even, withdrawn individual, besides! Physically of a worrisome scarecrow thin build, after the fashion of President Kennedy’s skeletal and haggard looks when he was a Congressman in excruciating pain over his back problems, especially as he ascended into high school. It would not be an exaggeration to state, he existed closer to a famine victim’s physique than away from it. All through his growing years, known for being hypersensitive and a brooder of sorts! Very easily took things deeply but deeply to heart every time. Everything bothered him, down to his soul promptly. Upon learning of his mother’s passing and then again at her funeral, went blue and limp in sheer unspoilt grief unfiltered. Going so distressed, stricken and into convulsions as to bitingly choke! Family elders, Dad (1) and OS, had to administer to him, hold him and thumping his back to restore his breathing, bring back the pink to his face/cheeks. He was amply fleshy then, with resplendent dark curly hair galore, a gorgeous round and abundantly ruddy face, big round eyes better suited to female beauty, … to go to his gaunt and haunted look in the next few years to 9th grade in high school. He was a handy source of worry, thus, to Dad (1) and OS all the time. Copyright © 2013 OS and SIS. All rights reserved. OS was to take AJ more directly under his wing as he ascended to this 9th grade in high school. No doubt his mother’s passing affected him, for he would speak of it in certain retching terms often. Beyond Dad (1), OS was very attentive to his associated needs. Apart from supervising his studies, even more OS directed himself to encouraging him, assuring him in terms of being there for him dedicatedly without fail, talking him though all his fears and ‘demons’, building up his self-esteem, … he was demonstrably sacrificing for all his siblings always anyway. Placing them before himself at all times. The boy blossomed promptly and rapidly. In almost no time, he began making quantum leaps in his academics, scaling heights not to be anticipated ever before. His outlook and health picked up very significantly too. OS was strict about academic expectations, while providing every kind of support assurance anyone would need. AJ sailed through high school maintaining high momentum, entering OS’s undergraduate college. OS, while letting AJ learn how to do things for himself, was always there right beside him. Often enough, ahead in watching out for him, especially where key pivotal areas at stake! Thus, OS was at the college with Dad (1) the late evening AJ’s name went up on the board as having been accepted, in advance of the acceptance letter arriving home.