Want a spare cane?

And there is my little nephew, okay, he's no longer little, who has been such a terror for the entire family. My cousin's kid. When he was indeed little, we would scram the moment we heard him anywhere in the vicinity. I remember the little monster climbing up to our terrace and sitting on the edge with his tiny legs hanging and his hands in the air mocking "Look people, no hands!" And if anybody dared to crane their necks, shade their eyes with a hand and actually look, he threatened to jump.

I secretly kept a cane handy to smack his hide if I ever got a chance. Unfortunately I didn't.

Once when important official guests were over, the poor parents cajoled him into playing in the guest room and quietly latched the door from outside. Surprisingly he never made a racket nor chewed down the door. And when the guests left, the parents opened the door to find him grinning widely, his bottom naked. The next moment they were seized with stench so terrible, they had to cover their noses and scoot. But not before they had a glimpse of the collage on the walls. Of poop. The monster crapped and used his pants to smear the walls, without dirtying his hands, mind you. Eeeww!!!

And over the years, the stories stopping coming, we heard he was reformed, civilized. Hard to believe. He lives in Bangalore now. We hear he got a job recently. So the example-of-perfect-son elder brother with wife goes to meet him. They wait, they look around for him. A slap on the back knocked the wind out of him, and big bro turns around to find himself looking into the face of... his little brother, of course. Except the face itself had about 7 piercings with horrendous rings hanging from them! When he spoke, 2 more studs gleamed on the pink tongue!

9 piercings just on face! No jokes! The kid has some balls! And I am suddenly proud of him. He's living a full life compared to his goody-two-shoes cousins!

Now, I am officially letting go of the cane, which I have been carrying in my mind!