Kay's Rectangle (snippety STORY)

Kay grew up watching horror flicks. She loved them -though she didn’t quite understand her liking towards them.. it used to scare her immensely too.. but it didn’t keep her from watching them. She put a brave grown up front and tried not to get scared of those evil uncanny things.. be it serial killers, ghosts in trees, axe murderers, bloody zombies, vampires or werewolves.. Of course she knew they were just movies! Only fiction. Their lives were limited and confined only within the rectangle of the television that was quite powerless without the electricity. She knew that. Yes she did… Till her ideas got challenged that is.

So Kay, unlike kids her age watching Lulu and Disney’s Mermaid- watched horrors and sci-fi movies. Yes, yes nobody of significance knew about it. She had learnt it from early on that this was taboo.. a complete NO to watch. Her father had once given her a tight slap when she refused to change the channel on TV and held tightly onto the remote control all the while trying to reason out with him how grown up and mature she is and that she can handle it. The slap had followed the well meaning instructional requests from her aunt to do the same. It felt weird and confusing why they would make so much of a fuss about a man teasing a woman and tugging at a tiny corner of her yellow saree.. It was weird and looked quite funny actually- Nothing so scary to evoke such concerned serious faces in the house. Her father had never yelled at her before. So of course Kay was shaken up when her cheek unexpectedly stung.. but she wasn’t shocked after all she had created a scene over nothing!

But a couple of months after that episode, things got really scary. She was afraid of the dark, of sudden loud noises like the breaking of glass ..or even of being alone. This was thanks to the movie called The Ring. Her buddy uncle wanted to watch it and the house rules did not permit lights after 10.. but of course they didn’t listen! It was customary for all the kids of various ages to watch one film post 11 at night quietly and keep it a secret. Usually it would be an English Action Comedy like one of those Jackie Chang films.. but not that night..

The episodic night- there were no kids of Kay’s age-so her vote wouldn’t count. And in any case, individually she would never voice her fears! She was a big and strong girl. She was 6 and a half! So she agreed. She was not scared but slightly reluctant but didn’t let it show of course. The group sent her to check on the other rooms- to peek in and see if the grown ups were asleep by then- It had to be her cause she was the tiniest and could run fast without making too much noise. She did her bit stealthily, found everyone snoring and fast asleep and came back with a wide successful grin.

They put on the movie. Everyone watched. Kay quietly squirmed. She was in some ways enjoying it too. She had found an in between way to watch it. She would go ostrich head in her older cousin’s lap closing her ears shut tight and eyes buried in the safety of a motherly lap. The movie eventually got over. Everyone was slightly scared. She could tell from their nervous laughter. It was a put up one.. and too obvious even for a 6 yr old. And she in any case was 6 and a half! The Ring had blurred the lines between reality and the confinement of horror within the power driven rectangle. It blurred it prêt-ty bad. You’d know exactly how if you’ve seen the film!

She knew that then on she would not be able to watch TV peacefully.. coupled with memories of another film called Bhoot- a Hindi one, she knew it would be just impossible to watch TV at all. The sense of something creeping up from behind of her was already high.

In the next few years, she kept her fear of the dark intact. She would not go to the loo by herself or drink water in the middle of the night- no matter how badly she wanted to. She would run from one corner to the next if her mum was too fed up and tired to accompany her. And each time she visibly got scared, her mum would give a tap on her head followed by her. “If you can’t manage to see it, why watch it!?”

She grew up okay all right. But she didn’t stop getting scared and she didn’t stop watching. Her mum’s question lay on her head like an epitaph on a gravestone; pinned-constantly there! Yes, this question did resolve in some way- after she discovered Stephen King and his ideas and philosophies. At 17 and a half she was an aspiring children’s horror story writer.

And the rest as they say.. is history!

---

Kay couldn’t help shaking her head a little as she smiled- reading this pre-chapter in one of her very early writings. It was a reprint version of her second book ever published. It had been a long enough journey of 65 books since then.. but she knew- these early ones were the best! These were the crude little powerful rectangles that didn’t require any electricity at all…