A Dozen Ways To Kill

"Disco Dancer"

Credits:
"I am a Disco Dancer"
Year: 1982
Artist: Vijay Benedict

I request you guys to kindly go through the aforementioned song before reading this particular episode as this song has been used in some parts of this episode.
Cheers!

Akhil Joseph

***

It was a fairly bright day. The sun was up and shining and there was not even a single cloud in sight. The people all around seemed to be pretty busy.

A family of four made its way into a famous temple in Chennai. The couple had two daughters.

The younger daughter, who was just six years old pulled at her dad's hand and pointed to a toy being sold by a shopkeeper. "I want that!" she said.

"You have plenty of toys at home" said her dad as he looked at the toy she was pointing at. "In fact, I bought you something similar to that like a month ago."

"That's broken now" the small girl said.

Her dad looked at her. "Well, I'll buy you something later. Now come on, after this we have a wedding to go to!"

She clung on to her dad's hand as they made their way up a huge set of stairs to the temple. The people around them were chanting something out loud.

"Ohm Namah Shivaya."

She looked around at the huge crowd around her. It seemed unreal to her, the fact that there were these many people there just to pray in the temple. To her six-year-old mind all of this was very unnatural. She remembered how her grandmother used to tell her, that if she prayed to god truthfully and honestly, he would grant whatever she wishes for.

Her mom and her elder sister went up ahead while she clung on to her dad's hand. As she made her way up the stairs, she made a quick prayer, remembering what her grandmother had said. "Oh god! Please gimme that toy that I wanted. Please lemme watch my cartoons today and please don't let my sister watch her reality shows. And also, God, let today be a very good day."

As she made her way up, she realised that the strap on her right sandals had become loose. She took a look at it and realised that it needed fixing.

She let go of her dad's hand and bent down for a couple of seconds. She adjusted the strap and held onto her dad's hand again.

The crowd was just pushing forward as it was very crowded. The chanting's were getting louder by the second.

"Ohm Namah Shivaya."

The people ahead moved forward slowly. Soon, she was at the top of the stairs still clinging on to her dad's hand.
She slowly gazed around. There were just people, everywhere.

Her young mind was still full of small, small doubts that she just couldn't resist asking every once in a while. She pulled at her dad's hand to ask him a doubt.

"Appa, why are all these people chanting this?"

Her dad turned around to look at her again. Except, it wasn't her dad.

The six-year-old girl got the shock of her life as she looked up the person who was supposed to be her dad. It was some person whom she hadn't even seen before in her life.

All of a sudden, she felt a strange fear come over her. The guy took a glance at her, ignored her and kept walking. Where was her dad?

She looked around in horror. It was a huge crowd of people and she couldn't see anything at all. There were just unfamiliar faces around her, and most of them were busy chanting.