SETTING THE STAGE (mini tale)
By Neel Anil Panicker
He was to the stage born; tall, authoritative, a rippling, sinuous mass of pure muscle that moved in sync much a like a full mane Royal Bengal Tiger, the authoritative, dictatorial image complete with roar so strong, a few octaves higher than plebians, just about enough to ensure that the salvation hoi polloi turned into obsequious non-questioning followers ever ready to fulfill every whispering wish of their omnipotent leader.
Vikram Mathena was born a lion; rather, the diabolical hands of fate had forced him to metamorphose from an innocent, a shit scared, thinly teenaged lamb into the undisputed, unchallenged king of the concrete jungle that was life.
Elections were barely a week away, and as the 40 year made his signature grand, psychedelic splash into the giant stage, the ‘God’ (the epithet he was anointed with!) knew that this time the battle was straight for the highest office of his state—the Chief Minister’s chair—and then, when he won the stage set for the final act in his revenge saga—the annihilation of the Yadav family, beginning with the killing of its payerfamilias, the evil Surendra Yadav, the ageing timber mafia don, also the man who had one, wintry bloody December night massacred the entire 12 member Mathena clan, leaving a shell shocked nine year old enough motive to last several lifetimes.
