Synopsis: The Old Man Who Was a C-word

This is centred around an old man who grew up in a culture where preying on the helpless and gullible was a way of life. Of late, he has been living off of the work of others and not really doing much himself. One day he realises that nobody respects him and then something snaps in him.

On a morning soon after, he sets out with the intention of going a long way out to harm those weaker than him, just to prove himself to his peers. On his return he boasts about all the wicked things he did to the rest of the village who take his word for it despite scarce evidence of the same. So awestruck is the rest of the village that they elect him their leader and inflict more brazen atrocities in his name. The old man goes back to doing nothing except now he has to provide the occasional sound byte.

This is the story of so many old men that perhaps this could be an anthology of biographies titled, The Old Men Who Were C-words.

Inspired by: The Old Man and the Sea

Mekedatu, Karnataka, India

Mekedatu is a half a day trip from Bangalore. The story goes that at that point, a goat ( meke ) jumped ( datu ) across the Kaveri river to escape a chasing tiger. A herdsman who happened to spot the incident suggested the name, probably to his herdsmen chums. Whatever floats your goat, his herdsmen chums said to him having more important matters of their own to deal with.

According to legend, these are goat hooves because the
goat that jumped across the river was actually Lord Shiva.
A simpler, more believable, explanation could be Punjabi aunties.

My Problem With #notallmen

Like that one racist uncle in every family who thinks all Muslims are terrorists, everybody has that one feminazi friend whose post-sexual-assault-news posts do actually sound like they blame ALL straight men for any sexual violence. In a country like India, where the genders don't really intermingle because, depending on whom you hear it from, either men are dicks or women have a princess complex, it only exacerbates an existing problem. Some straight men, who felt unfairly vilified, decided to respond with #notallmen. A #yesallwomen also arose after that to inform all men that all women face sexual harassment. Some day these will be the names of a female superhero movie trilogy. Or tags on orgy videos.

Ryan must have been really pleased when he came up with this. I can imagine
the smug smile on his face as he entered that emphatic line break between
the 'does' and the 'it' at the end, hit the post button, sat back, and waited for
he likes to pour in by the bucketful as he stroked the white cat in his lap.
( image source: Ryan Henly )