VOICES

He switched on the TV and saw a dozen skimpily-clad girls dance around the hero in an exotic location. Maybe he would have ogled at the girls a few decades back. But, having spent more than eight and a half decades on this planet, he was no longer interested in short skirts or heaving bosoms. So, he changed to a News channel, only to find the panelists shouting at each other over some trivial non-newsworthy issue. Finally, after checking a few more channels, in frustration, he switched off the TV and angrily threw the remote on the sofa. He has lost interest in watching TV shows, but he always keeps the TV switched on, giving him the feeling that someone was with him. With the TV switched off, silence fell over the whole house.

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He grimaced as he got up from the sofa and ambled towards the kitchen, crossing the dining room on the way. The dog followed him. The cat got up from the sofa and stretched itself. The cook had made tea and poured it into the flask. He picked up a steel tumbler to pour the tea, but it slipped from his hand and clattered on the floor, breaking the silence that had enveloped the house. He bent down and picked it with great difficulty and, after having picked it, poured the tea from the flask into the tumbler, took a pack of biscuits from the shelf, and went to the dining hall to sit at the dining table. He saw a couple of bananas in the fruit basket on the dining table. The tea was hot. He kept it aside to cool and looked out through the dining room window at the guava tree that grew in his compound. The big house remained silent.

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The cat came through the bars in the window and jumped onto the dining table. It took a sip of tea and said, "It is still hot." He nodded his head. The dog came next to him and put his paw on his thigh. It took the biscuit packet, opened it, and ate a couple of biscuits. The monkey on the guava tree came in, jumped onto the dining table, and started eating a banana. Then, with its mouth full, it asked him, "You look dull today. Generally, you are excited on Saturdays because you talk to your son and his family in the USA. Why are you so glum today?"

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