Greentext · 4 minNine Thirty Cable Cut

>be me, 12 years, 1996

>hyderabad, a colony in vidyanagar

>one day a man comes on a tvs fifty with a big roll of black wire

>that is cable ravi

>he climbs the neem tree in front of our house like a monkey

>ties the wire to a branch

>throws it across to our first floor window

>"one hundred rupees a month, sir, thirty channels" he says to nanna

>thirty channels

>till yesterday we had two

>doordarshan, and dd metro only when the wind was correct

>tatayya is sitting on the swing on the verandah

>retired station master, kazipet junction

>he says nothing

>only "hmm", in the voice he uses for bad coffee

>ravi drills a hole in the window frame

>pushes the wire through

>screws a small round joint to the window grill

>another wire from the joint to the back of our onida

>the onida with the devil, neighbours envy, owners pride

>and then the screen is full of things

>star plus, zee, etv, gemini

>discovery, a lion eating something very slowly

>and cartoon network

>tom and jerry, in colour, at four in the afternoon, every day

>me and my sister swapna sat on the floor and did not move for three days

>tatayya walked past the tv many times a day

>"wire that spoils children" he said

>"in my time we read the hindu"

>"the whole hindu, even the classifieds"

>nanna said "it is only one hundred rupees, nanna"

>tatayya said "hmm"

>the rule was tv off at nine thirty

>homework, then sleep

>nobody follows rules when there are thirty channels

>so on the fourth night something started

>exactly at nine thirty the screen goes white

>snow, on all channels

>ssshhh sound

>first night we thought it was rain

>no rain

>second night same, nine thirty

>third night same

>nanna went downstairs and asked the neighbours

>their cable was fine

>he called ravi from the std booth

>ravi came next morning and climbed the neem tree again

>checked everything

>"all correct, sir, the problem is only in your house"

>"maybe some ghost in your house likes nine thirty" he said and laughed

>tatayya did not laugh

>he said "hmm"

>swapna was scared of the ghost line

>i was not scared, i was suspicious

>i am twelve, i read detective books from the lending library

>fifty paise a day

>so on the sixth night at nine twenty five i was in the kitchen

>lights off, standing behind the fridge

>nine twenty eight

>tatayya comes slowly out of his room

>pancha, banian, reading glasses pushed up on his head

>he goes to the window

>to the small round joint on the grill

>he unscrews it

>just half a turn

>and goes back to his room

>nine thirty, snow on the screen

>in the hall swapna says "the ghost has come"

>amma says "then go and sleep"

>i was planning to tell everybody in the morning

>but at one o clock in the night i woke up for water

>there was a blue light in the hall

>the tv was on

>volume very low, maybe two

>tatayya was sitting on the floor

>on the floor, a man with knee pain

>half a metre from the screen

>reading glasses down on his nose

>a small diary on his knee

>discovery

>crocodiles in some river in africa

>an english man whispering about them

>tatayya was writing in the diary

>i stood in the kitchen door holding the steel glass

>he did not see me

>a crocodile came up out of the water very suddenly

>tatayya jumped

>a full jump, sitting down

>then he laughed at himself without any sound

>and wrote something again

>i went back to bed without drinking water

>next morning, idli for breakfast

>tatayya put down the newspaper

>"swapna, do you know a crocodile cannot put out its tongue"

>swapna said "no tatayya"

>"it is true" he said

>"i read it in the hindu"

>he looked at me

>i put a full idli in my mouth so i could not talk

>it went on like that for four years

>snow at nine thirty, every night

>ravi changed the joint two times, then he gave up

>"sir, your house is special" he told nanna

>and every morning tatayya knew something new

>a cheetah runs one hundred and ten kilometres an hour

>the heart of a blue whale is as big as a car

>all from the hindu

>swapna got 48 out of 50 in science because of the hindu

>when ravi came for the monthly hundred rupees

>tatayya would come out and pay before nanna could

>"for the children" he would say

>nanna thought he had changed his mind about cable

>i never told anybody

>after he went, amma was clearing his room

>she found nine small diaries

>full of animals, in his railway handwriting

>"when did he write all this" she said

>"he read the hindu, amma" i said

>the whole hindu

>even the classifieds