The greatest heroes a kid could ever have are her parents.
‘Laya, I don’t know how else to say this, but your Mother and I won’t be there for your wedding’
‘Krishan! This is not what discussed at all and that’s not how you ease into it!’ Frida said angrily as she walked into my bedroom with packed suitcases.
‘Why? The kid has seen way worse, remember Diwali last year’
‘Don’t you mean Christmas of ’04 , that was a humdinger.’
‘How else do I tell him? Please educate me in the ways of the silver tongued devil, you’ve clearly practiced it on me over the years’ Krishnan said with an air of playful disdain
‘Krish! This is not the time and place, we have a flight to catch’
‘Which airline are you going by Appa?’ I asked mechanically, ‘like they’re going to need it’ I thought simultaneously. For years I could see straight through the excuses they would give me for their apparent domestic tardiness. Excuses that were strangely debunked by the morning papers and their own news site, The Holler.
‘Sorry for coming home late for dinner dear’ — ‘Mysterious woman rescues 200 Syrian Sex Slaves’
‘Baby, sorry for not picking you up after school’ — ‘Devastating Tsunami in Japan. Zero Casualties.’
‘Buttercup, I am so sorry for not coming to see the play’ — ‘Energy Minister found hanging atop windmill, confesses to crimes in custody’
‘Chellam, sorry for not coming to watch you bowl’ — ‘Neo Nazi hate march disrupted by White Angel’
Frida and Krishnan. my Mother and Father. Not the best at being there for me, but they are wonderful parents.
They met in Bhopal while working as contract chemical engineers and immediately fell in love, their only respite in the harsh working conditions of Union Carbide India.
‘It was the drugs’ my dad used to say, his go-to joke at parties when people ask about their whirlwind romance. ‘Go easy on the meat dear, I can’t take another gas tragedy’ would be my mom’s usual retort.
A secret kept us apart since they independently decided to conceal it. They weren’t normal parents. They weren’t even normal people. Ever since that fateful December day in 1984 made them the sole survivors of the Methyl isocyanate Blitzkrieg.
‘Your Mother and I won’t be attending the wedding Laya, please tell Luke too.’ my dad said bringing me back to the present.
‘Why appa, what’s wrong?’
‘Well, we have an urgent work trip to Pyongyang. We are covering the plight of the North Korean people for the Holler and you know how permits are hard to come by.’ my dad said with a straight face.
The greatest super heroes a kid could ever have are her parents.