‘Kaikku? – Its all about family…’

This is the script of a family drama that I wish to propose to Ekkta the next time I meet her. Keeping in mind that every soap from the Balaji Production House has a regional-centric theme, this story revolves around the life of an Urdu speaking joint family residing in Bangalore. Those from Lucknow who are reading this piece must be warned that the language content may be a bit too toxic for them but for the rest who have been around for long enough in Bangalore and have found themselves at home in Russel Market will relate to it quite fine.

Since ‘ba’ is more of a colloquial term, the 65-year-old family head is called Babama instead. Babama has this habit of saying ‘Kya ba so?’ at the end of every sentence. This translated literally means ‘ What dude that?’. She is highly respected in the family, especially by her 40 yr old son Koli Chand Pasha. His blessed name means ‘Chicken Moon Pasha’ in kandu-urdu. The appellation Koli is credited to the fact that he had monopolized the entire Poultry Industry. His favorite line in all press conferences was ‘Dekho Bhai, Mai khud-ich itta bada admi banya so…. Pehle manje pehenne ku kaacha bhi nai tha’.

His loving wife ShameemBanu, who is the protagonist, simply smiles and says ‘Mai nai rhati to uno kya karte the ki’. She is the epitome of a perfect mother, wife, daughter-in law, sister-in-law, neighbour, jeth, devrani, chachi, bhabhi, etc..

Koli had two children, Chota Chand, whose name was changed to Khota Chand for astrological reasons, and Khulla Shah. Both were brilliant students from MIT (that’s Manipal… not Massachusetts ). Everything in the family seemed to perfect until one day…..

(To be continued….)