<img style="float: left;" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2022/jun/Rahul-op_e.jpg" alt="Rahul Da Cunha" width="200" height="69" />Nats thumped on my front door.
The force of thumps indicated to me the shade of anger within Nats&rsquo;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.
&ldquo;Dude you&rsquo;re telling me that Aryan&rsquo;s jail time, for 27 days&hellip; was based on a &lsquo;shoddy probe&rsquo;, Bruh!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Morning Nats, welcome! Come in, have some coffee&rdquo;
&ldquo;That guy whasisname, &nbsp;who busted Aryan and Rhea&hellip; his surname is a cricket stadium?&rdquo;&ldquo;Wankhede&rdquo;
&ldquo;His punishment is a Tamil Nadu posting&hellip; howz that a punishment, he&rsquo;ll go to Chennai, sip some rasam, learn Tamil, his missus will buy some kanjeevaram saris and then when it&rsquo;s the right time, he&rsquo;ll slink back to the city.&rdquo;
I tried to give the adult, objective, &ldquo;what to do this is India&rdquo; rationale.
&ldquo;Bruh&hellip; I&rsquo;m 19, when I get to your age, my cynical anger will have settled into your comfortable acceptance, I&rsquo;ll have the rationalisations and the justifications ready. I&rsquo;ll have armchair critic-ed my way to to explain the anarchy&hellip; I&rsquo;ll organically don that slight condescending look that sets into your face&mdash;dude not now... not yet... may I be livid, like for a few years more?&rdquo; Nats asked, rhetorically.
&ldquo;Sure Natasha go ahead. Be angry,&rdquo; I sighed.
Nats&rsquo; face resembled the different hues of a sunset.
&ldquo;Aryan&rsquo;s been given a &lsquo;clean chit&rsquo;&hellip; what&rsquo;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&hellip;keep refusing him bail, and then months later, you go &lsquo;oops mistake ho gaya&rsquo; It&rsquo;s &lsquo;obvio&rsquo; he was a scapegoat!&rdquo;
Nats sat down, the dark purple streaks of twilight had faded to a burgundy.
&ldquo;What gets me is when SRK was alone, going from pillar to post&hellip; bail application after bail application rejected&hellip; the nation went silent. It was eerily silent like a cemetery&hellip; the film industry&hellip; boom quiet&hellip; they nailed the boy on a few WhatsApp messages! And now everyone&rsquo;s bobbing up and down&hellip; no one wants the shit to stick to them.How do you pay for the scars that have found their way into Aryan&rsquo;s DNA?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Too much angst Nats! Can you calm down?&rdquo;
&ldquo;What is too much, Bruh. Are you telling me that you&rsquo;re okay with this?&rdquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Kiddo, you need to let off some steam. Why don&rsquo;t you meditate?&rdquo;
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t meditate!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Why not go for a run?&rdquo;
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t run.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Go watch a movie then&hellip; go to Inox&hellip; catch Top Gun-Maverick, it&rsquo;s the sequel to 1986&rsquo;s Top Gun.&rdquo;
When Nats did not like me changing the subject, her face went back to a dodgy pre-monsoon sunset.&nbsp;
&ldquo;You guys are the same age right?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Who?&rdquo;
&ldquo;You and Tom Cruise, Pops?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Whats that got to do with anything and why you calling me Pops?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Like that younger pilot calls Cruise in Top Gun, Pops.&rsquo;&rsquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Still why you calling me, Pops?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Because I&rsquo;m irritated&rdquo;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll remind you young lady that he&rsquo;s a vicious little actor, who&rsquo;s into Scientology amidst the superstardom... so take it down a notch!&rdquo;
Even Nats knew there were boundaries that couldn&rsquo;t be crossed, as the tsunami settled down to a tepid stream.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m horrified at where we are, Bruh, in our history. Frankly, this is our future.&rdquo;
The volcano has mercifully un-lavaed for a bit.
&ldquo;Talking about Tom Cruise, I tell you, every Tom Cruise movie title has a context here.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Care to explain?&rdquo; I asked, now genuinely interested.
&ldquo;Take any issue we&rsquo;re facing, I&rsquo;ll give you a Cruise flick.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Okay shoot,&rdquo; I said.
&ldquo;The targeting of a specific community or communities&hellip; MINORITY REPORT,&rdquo; &nbsp;she began.
&ldquo;Hmmm&rdquo; I said.
&ldquo;The levels of corruption today&hellip; THE COLOUR OF MONEY&hellip; why the Congress can&rsquo;t progress... THE MUMMY&hellip; And finally, where we are as a people, a society, as a country, I have a Tom Cruise movie for that too.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Which movie?&rdquo;
&ldquo;MISSION IMPOSSIBLE- ROGUE NATION&rdquo;
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com
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The force of thumps indicated to me the shade of anger within Nats’s Palette of Rage

Nats and angst management

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Nats and angst management

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