Suresh both loved and hated the women in his life. His mother, his 3years-older sister Varsha and his 5years-older cousin Anushka. He loved them all and they all loved him. But, he could not repress his negative feelings about their bullying. Both Varsha and Anushka were complete bullies. They were very strong, excelled in most sports and were trained karate fighters. Suresh was more inclined towards academics, quite lean and could just could not stand up to them. They both learned this very early and bullied him from when he was 10 years old frequently making him do sit-ups, do all their errands and ragging him all the time. For as long as he could remember, Anushka was always pulling his trousers down. He would run and hide whenever he saw her but she would always find a way to sneak up on him and pull. Everyone around would laugh and clap. He would then beg Anushka for his shorts back which she would give only after he ran some errands or completed a punishment for her. Now that he was 18, he was wearing pants with buckles so he hardly faced that anymore.
Both his family and Anushka's family lived in the same house which had two floors. His family residing in the upper floor. His father and her father were brothers. His parents and her parents all knew about the bullying but did nothing to put a stop to it. Their theory was that he had to help himself and boy rely on elders. Either fight them or obey them. They cannot protect him all the time. While Suresh could see the logic in it, it nevertheless hurt when they would not help him but just laugh while he was pushed around by his sisters. Mom and aunt not only turned a blind eye but also actively encouraged it since it gave them another helping hand around the house. They themselves were quite dominant with their respective husbands which was a small comfort to Suresh. Whenever he saw them put down his dad or uncle, it gave him a small encouragement that he was not alone in being bullied by women.
When his dad and uncle passed away in an accident a week after Suresh turned 18, there were some decisions that had to be taken. Economic decisions. For some reason, there was apparently only enough money to continue only one of their education and the moms came up with the decision of who would continue in all of ten seconds. Varsha and Anushka dropped out and took a job at a local garments shop and bakery respectively. The moms started a tailoring business. This meant that only Suresh had some free time before and after school which meant that only he could do the household chores. Anushka steeled herself to be his supervisor and it was not pretty for Suresh. She beat him up for the slightest mistakes. He had to wake up, wash dishes, sweep and clean the house, wash all the clothes, go to school and then come back and retrieve the clothes in addition to making coffee for the moms in the evening. His extra curricular life dropped dead completely. Not that he had much anyway. He preferred playing Chess online to playing cricket or Tennis after school and this worked for him. Anushka would come back in the evening and he would instantly make her Coffee. She would then point to her legs. The uncovered legs and feet since she and Varsha never wore anything below their knees. He would then start massaging her feet until she felt better.
Varsha would come back sometime later. Suresh had to give a foot massage to her as well. He was slowly getting really good at it. Very soon, the moms started insisting on it too. And, it became a ritual that every evening, Suresh would spend one hour, 15 minutes each giving foot massages to each of the four superior women in his life. Three days into this, they told him to kiss the feet first before starting to massage. He felt no shame or humiliation in this. The four women were working out of their skins to provide him with basic needs and a quality education. If that meant he had to repay them by being their slave, so be it. What hurt, however, was the lack of even a small appreciation? A simple thank you Suresh or good work, Suresh. Was that really so hard? Sometimes, especially during the weekends, he would then be ordered to do sit-ups or jumping jacks after the foot massages as an entertainment for the women. The four women laughed while humiliating him this way. Suresh silently grit his teeth and obeyed every demand. He knew that they wanted to make him cry and beg them to stop. He never game them that satisfaction. Until the day of his poonal ceremony.
The poonal was a sacred thread that all brahmin men wore. It consisted of four strings interwoven into each other with a large knot at the centre. It took a great ceremony with a lot of rituals and yagas and it went on for two-three hours. The time to do it could be as early as when the boy was 7 years or quite later into his teens. He knew of an uncle who had the ceremony only after he turned 35. He never understood how they decided when it should happen. But, whatever logic and reasons, it was to take place for him now when he was 6 months shy of becoming 19 years. He hated all the rituals but silently accepted it. The big thing was that he had to wear a Dhoti. It was a long garment worn in India. You wove it around yourself and folded it around your waist in different places tightening it. The dhoti was great in that it never hugged your body very tightly which was important in a hot country like India. This caused far lesser sweating. However, it was not convenient. And, most importantly, at least for Suresh and Anushka, was that all you had to was grab hold of it and pull hard and it would easily come off since there were no buckles are clips to hold it in place. And that was what Anushka intended to do.
She informed him that it would be a throwback to their childhood. When she would frequently pull his trousers down. She told him that once all the activities were completed, he was to present himself to her. She would then pull his Dhoti off in front of the audience and he was expected to stay in his underwear and walk in it from the mantap to back home. While this seemed humiliating, it was anyway something he had already experienced. When he started doing house chores, he was quite clumsy. Since Anushka and Varsha could not hit him without seriously hurting him, they frequently made him stand outside in his underwear or walk to the nearby stores to get something in his underwear. The mantap, however, was at least ten blocks away but that was what he was going to do. Walk ten blocks in the evening in his underwear. Suresh accepted it. He knew his superiors wanted him to beg. He was not going to give them that satisfaction. He would walk with pride. However, all this changed, for something much worse when the priest came to their house to discuss the events.
The priest was a family friend. They discussed the event and his payment and slowly went on to talk about other things. Anushka told the priest what she planned to do.
"Don't worry, little boy. No one will say anything."
"I know, mama. I am really not that worried. Anushka has already forced me to walk around in my underwear so many times."
"Oh, really? The poor boy. Very bad, Anushka." The priest admonished her but with a smile. "Didn't you get into any trouble?"
"Well, there was a group of boys on motorcycles who tried to tease me. They stopped me and told me that the only way I was going home with my underwear on was if I cleaned their shoes. After Anushka and Varsha were done with them, they could not sit on their bikes for at least a week."
"So, even though they bully you, they also protect you."
"Not really. Two days later, some girls made a similar demand. They did not touch them" Suresh replied grudgingly.
