Nobel tolls for Me

This, this is an abomination! The whole thing is rigged! It’s a disgrace!”

- K.C. VERMA

I am really thankful to God that my wife’s vocabulary of swear words is limited. ‘An abomination’ is the most vile word that she uses, and that too when she is incensed beyond limits. I kept quiet, hoping she would cool down soon. But I was wrong. For another hour, she kept muttering oaths and cuss words stranger than any thought of in my philosophy.

Most families have annual rituals. Rituals like playing cards on Diwali or getting the whole brood to gather at Christmas or the annual staycation in some five-star hotel because frequent flyer points are about to lapse. Stuff like that. Well, my wife and I are different. Not for us these mundane rituals. Instead, we observe the annual Lamentation of the Nobel Not Awarded To Me Day. This is preceded by a week-long vigil before the television, throughout which my wife makes me sit by her side with fingers crossed till the Nobel Prize for Peace is announced. Sad to say, year after year, I do not get the prize.