My Aunt, that is my father's sister related something the other day which she no doubt found rather endearing judging by her giggly manners, but I on the other hand found deeply unsettling and it was all I could do to keep myself from reacting.  She mentioned that apparently her grandson, that is her daughter's boy who will turn 15 next month, still insists on sleeping in the same bed with his parents at night.  I don't know why, but I had the sudden urge to see the photograph of the boy as to what did he look like now.  Then my Aunt showed me his recent picture on her phone.  I could see that he has grown taller and his health has also improved, and that there was an air of academic promise about him.  I wanted to see the picture because I wanted to understand why would a grownup teenager like him would ask for something this bizarre?  Instead of being stern and firmly telling him where to get off, they have only indulged him thus far.  When his dad, who is himself a pompous fellow with an annoying sense of entitlement, asks him in mock seriousness what will he do when he would be doing some job in a different city, how is he going to manage then?  And his answer is infuriatingly simple, he will take the mother away wherever he goes.  Take that Mr. Father!!  Conjugal intimacies gone for a toss.  And to think that they were trying for another kid; well fat chance of that happening now, if you know what I mean!

A lot of well meaning and educated people think that the Western society is more sensual and Indian society is more spiritual.  Then I feel like saying that if western society is ''sensual'', then our society is hypocritical.  The reason being that in the West, people by and large see things or situations as they are, unlike most of us who only imagine things that aren't there.  Our senses are something we are born with, if you are a believer you will say that being sensual is only making use of what God has given us; but hypocrisy is our own invention, and that's where the problem lies.  So, my Aunt and her family may see this as a benign manifestation of the kid's intensely filial devotion for his parents, particularly the mother, but what they don't see is hiding in plain sight.  The cloying affection going rancid.  The boy not being an emotionally balanced individual unable to negotiate the minefield of interpersonal relations in the wider world.  More is the pity.