Imagine you get home from school and your entire house was a mess. Your room was strewn with garbage, your books torn up, your kitchen stank of dead rats, windows were shattered, electrical appliances removed from their sockets.
You exclaim, “this is such a shithole! Wtf!” (1/n)

Several pairs of ears perk up. Your parents and siblings stealthily start walking towards you, stare into your eyes like a bunch of zombies and, angrily scream “How dare you say that? EVERYTHING IS FINE! If you hate it so much then go stay in your neighbour’s house!!!” (2/n)

“But..why does our house look so bad?” you mumble.
“YOU UNGRATEFUL ASSHOLE,” comes the thunderous response.
You’re confused. This is new. All you wanted was to come back to a clean house. You all used to cook and clean together as a family. You were progressive that way. (3/n)

But now you were being shouted at and being called all sorts of names for pointing out that the house is a mess. Nobody was willing to ADMIT that it had become a dumpyard, much less clean it. They think you’re a padosi stooge, that college made you hate your own house.(4/n)

You animatedly try to explain to them that the house is a fucking mess and we should clean it up. But they seem to be far too emotional about that shit. They remind you that you took your first steps in the house, your first pee, shit, meal, cry, laugh. (5/n)

You interrupt them by saying “who cares!?? It’s a mess right NOW!”. Suddenly, the room goes quiet. You can feel the anger levels rising, you can almost visualise a chain of smoke exiting their ears, like in one of those cartoons you user to watch (and still do). (6/n)

You feel that the only thing stopping them from laying a hand on you is that you’re their son. Your father gets up suddenly when he hears the teapot. The tea has spilled over because it was left unattended. He is annoyed over it. The tea seems to have no opinion.(7/n)

Father and tea seem to have a weird connection. It’s almost as if he was a tea-seller in his previous life. (8/n)

Sorry for the delay. I was taking a tea break. It didn’t spill. That’s because I gave it ample attention. Giving attention is very important, not just while making tea but also to maintain your relationships. More on that another time. (9/n)

Father pours three-quarters of the cup of tea, vexed about losing some of it. You start to walk towards the stove, cupping your nose with your hands as the stench of dead rats makes you wanna pass out. You want to comment on the state of the kitchen but decide against it. (10/n)

Mother calls a meeting of the whole family. Your siblings are all giving you disgusting looks. You were never very close to them, but this feels disconcerting and lonely. Why did everyone get so offended that you reminded them how trashy the house looked today? (11/n)

Father begins talking. “Beta we think you are being brainwashed. We don’t want you to become like one of those ungrateful anti-house, pro-padosi people. You are supposed to be South-delhi’s Awesome Number#1 Gorgeous House-bhakt Insaan (SANGHI). (12/n)