Conversation with daughters- 14

I have a couple of thieves in my house. I can’t even hand them over to the police, because I have fathered them. I am pretty helpless.

Till some time back, I used to sport a thick, black moustache, which required quite a bit of maintenance. Among the many tools and appurtenances that I kept in my ‘emergency care’ kit, was a pair of scissors to trim the moustache. Imagine my agony, when one fine morning, I found them missing, forcing me to go out into the world with an untrimmed moustache and injured Tamilian pride. I decided to nab the culprits. Quick enquiries led me to my daughter’s study and there, amidst the debris and ruin, was my favourite pair of scissors. Daughter had borrowed it. “To cut out a picture to make a birthday card for my dearest friend” she informed me.

One of my friends has two sons and wept inconsolably when I visited him many years back. He had hell at home, he told me, with the brats constantly absconding with his Yonex racquet, his white shorts or his wrist bands. I sympathized with him and left him. Later, I thanked my stars when I was blessed with two daughters. Alas, I found to my dismay, that flicking dad’s shorts and socks was not something that the male offspring alone indulged in. Both the X-X and the X-Y chromosome pairs carry this vital piece of genetic information. Thus, female off-springs are equally prone to and adept in purloining things that belong to male parent.

Envelopes, stapler, nail clippers, track pants, slippers, calculator, handkerchief, hair brush, pens – nothing is safe with these kleptomaniacs around, I have discovered.

Obviously, I won’t be able to lock up all these assorted things in my trusted Godrej almirah, away from the reach of this marauding pair. There are far too many miscellaneous items to collect and fit into one almirah.

Idea ! I will keep the thieves in safe custody inside the almirah. That’s a much simpler solution.

Update : Hardly had I pressed the "enter" button to post this blog, when I discovered that the elder of the two merciless marauders had coolly taken off today with a pair of Nike socks that belonged to me. Compounding the crime, she had taken a 'wrong' pair, one sock ( is that singular allowed?) with a blue band and the other with a red band. So, not only have I lost a pair today, I am stuck with another wrong pair, in my cupboard.