Baldness

The eldest son’s phone beeped loud reminding him of a tight schedule he had to put off for this get together at his Ancestral home. Most of the children wore a maladroit look in their faces though obviously determined they were. As the house immersed in deep silence, their father gazed into the mirror massaging his bald head with merely two hairs left. When the family WhatsApp group turned active oddly in the last two days, he knew something unsolicited would happen soon. The expensive cars parked in front of the house added charm to the old dilapidated building. Vehicles numbered equal to the children and even the grandchildren. The youngest among them owned the most expensive car, and it brought in indignation among the elders. All the children had already gathered in the threshold of the house waiting for their ailing father arrive. In a short while, their father dragged himself into the quadrangle, where his children were seen equipped as if for a war. He forbade the eldest son who came in to help him to settle down in the armchair. Refusing to look at anyone gathered there he reclined in his lounger. He gestured his son to keep away, while the others looked at him with strange apathy.  His arrival brought in a complete silence, except his grandchild exclaiming in excitement, “look there…. grandpa!”. But his mother forcefully fastened his mouth with her hand.        

 Most of them hung their heads down waiting for the other to begin the most awaited bargain. However, no one dared to break the ice fearing their father’s wrath upon them. The children grew impatient, and that was made evident as many of them kept looking at their watches. Coming home…. get the partition done and go back with no further delay, and this was everyone’s plan. Before any of them could complain about their lack of time, their father placed the Will on the table. And there followed a sigh of relief from his children. He spoke nothing except staring at the horizon winking his swollen eyes occasionally. The children took their turn to analyze the Will back and forth. Everyone invariably replicated their displeasure, of not getting what they desired for. His children, nephews and grandchildren engaged in war of words expressing their discontentment. Their father was cornered, while they engaged in fierce altercation between each other. Rubbing his bald head while not deterred by all the chaos, the old man remained silent in his chair. Consequently, the noise subsided, for the children rightly diagnosed the futility of fighting over something which has already been decided upon.

They stood on the veranda wondering how they could utilize the property divided among themselves ‘disproportionately’. Most of them walked out of their ancestral house without even caring to bid farewell to their ailing father. Their cars’ wheels formed ripples in the water logged in front of their home, as they sped up resolving to come back no more. A strange smile came upon their father’s lips as his children left the house distressed. Though they haven’t got their share as desired, at least they have got their father’s baldness in right proportion. Though the younger one’s among them hadn’t yet received the baldness, he had no complaints. For the old man sighed rubbing his bald head, saying they were already bald in their hearts. Among those left with weary hearts, only a two-year-old had the dignity to look at the old man and smile. And he responded to her waving his feeble hand. To his astonishment, when he placed his hand on his bald head, he realized that the two estranged hairs left on his head had already fallen making him completely bald. And the children had their share for sure…he muffled in relief.