Part 2
He pushed his way into the crowd and observed. Most of the people were screaming different things and all the different noises resulted in a cacophony. All he heard was something like Barun several times. He strained his ears. But the noise was too much. He didn't look at the ladder. He didn't even know that such a ladder existed. Such was his disinterest in the whole TV scenario.
He quickly determined that some Barun guy was the current favourite and that attacking him would stir up a lot of passions. He looked around and saw a small bench. He climbed up the bench and cleared his throat.
"Barun is an idiot", he shouted (pretty loudly, if I may add). No one turned. Everyone was busy. He was puzzled. He shouted the same thing even more loudly. The people around him winced. One kindly soul asked him who this Barun was and what was so idiotic about him.
Mini was puzzled. Wasn't the name of the guy on the top Barun he asked. The kindly soul told him that his name was Brown (at this point the kindly soul had a beautiful smile on her face since she was a Brown Admi herself). "Is he a new actor or has he been around for long?" he asked. "He is relatively new," said the kindly soul.
Mini cleared his throat once again, and shouted "Brown in an idiot." The effect was immediate and startling. The surging crowd stopped screaming and turned together towards the source of (according to them) shockingly blasphemous statement.
All the Brown Admis asked him in one voice, "How dare you call Brown an idiot? He is a wonderful guy and fantastic actor".
Mini felt the familiar feeling of satisfaction creep into him. This was what he was meant to do. This was where he belonged. "Not only is he an idiot. He is also a loser and an expressionless actor," he declared.
Now there was a huge uproar. The Admis couldn't believe what they were hearing. Admis of other actors were delighted and joined Mini. Mini was elated. He mocked the Brown Admis, and asked them to get a life instead of sitting an admiring a guy who didn't give a damn.
The Admis asked him to get a life instead of standing here and making such statements.
The kindly soul was shocked. She asked Mini, "You don't even know who he is. Why are you making such statements about him? And why do you care?" Mini laughed at her and said, "Truly you are a fool to give a damn about a guy who doesn't know of your existence and doesn't care."
Suffice it to say, that the kindly soul was no longer kindly to anyone anymore.
Brown became Minis agenda. He came alive. His followers increased. The town hall became his permanent residence.
When the actor rating initiative was launched, each actor was given his demarcated pavilion in the city where his Admis could come and discuss about him and exchange pictures, and give updates about his latest moves.
Now the pavilion for Brown became another favourite target for Mini. He would storm in there and tease the Admis, taunt them, tear up the pictures, ridicule the updates and use the choicest insults when talking about Brown.
The Admis would retaliate and there would be huge fights. Finally someone would call the Odd, and the Odd would come and send Mini out and shut the door. Mini would soon jump in through the window and so on and so forth.
No place where Brown was mentioned was spared. The Suggestions and Comments section was covered with inflammatory writings about Brown. There was always a fight going on in the town hall.
The Odds seemed to be dedicated to fire-fighting.
Mini reveled in this. But he felt this had more potential and a lot left to be milked. He remembered the last time when VB had come personally to discuss things with him. He wanted THAT. So far VB was leaving it to the Odds to deal with things. The last time there were no Odds, and therefore VB had come personally. But Mini wanted him to come inspite of there being all the Odds.
He thought a lot about this and finally concluded that hitting the establishment would bring the leader. He directed his ire at the Odds. He went to the town hall, and wrote an essay on the biased attitudes of the Odds.
He called the Odds- Brown Admis. He said the Admis had attacked him by calling him names. And that IF was allowing character assassination of the members, and he would dissuade anyone else from joining. He said he would also convince the existing "sane" members to leave. There were a huge bunch of wannabes who joined him. They started the usual chant of making Mini the King. Minis pride swelled.
M saw all this and realized that whatever he had worried about seems to be coming true.
He went to VB. He apprised him of the situation. VB sighed. He wondered how he could get rid of Mini without coming across as biased. This Brown was becoming a thorn in his side. He briefly wondered if he could do away with Brown in the actors list, saying he had been on the top long enough, and now it should be the turn of someone else.
He conveyed his thought to M. M considered this briefly. He said it would not work for two reasons. One- None of the other actors had as many Admis, and if the Brown Admis left then the size of the kingdom would shrink. Two- He didn't think that Mini cared about who was on the top and would attack whoever was on the top.
VB saw the sense in M's argument. He didn't want to antagonize the Brown Admis too much lest they leave.
He decided that a strong punishment would act as a deterrent, and said "The next time Mini does anything like this, throw him into prison for a couple of days. The fear of going to prison will stop him from all this the next time.''
M was not sure, but without any other plan of action, gave this notification to all the Odds.
Pretty soon, Mini started another of his stunts, and he was promptly thrown into prison for three days. Minis followers camped in the town hall, and protested what they called the "despotic and Hitler like attitude of VB". They came up with a new name for VB...BrownBoy ( BB). Now VB became BB, and was mocked incessantly. Mini became a martyr for a noble cause, and the way his followers went on about him, it looked like sainthood was imminent.
VB and his wives Jodi became BBQ, and a lot of barbecue related jokes came to adorn the walls of the Town hall. "A Barbecue is also called a Barbie. What an apt name for VB.....I mean BB"...these kind of lame jokes. There were several jokes referencing buffaloes but dear readers, I shall not mention them here.
VB was shocked that his initiative had resulted in this. He asked for Mini to be released. Mini came out and was greeted like a victorious soldier who had come back home after a long and tiring war. He was taken in a procession to the town hall, where he was feted for several hours.
VB decided it was time to intervene. He went to the town hall. As soon as he was spotted, he was heckled by Mini's supporters. " Wheres the sauce guys? The steak is here". "Where's your Barbie? Did you lose it? Awww...don't cry." " Here is the BBQ grill. Where shall we light the fire?"...and so on and so forth.
VB felt acutely embarrassed. Even in his wildest nightmares, he hadn't thought that his loving subjects would talk with him like this. He said, " All of you stop this at once." "And if we don't?" asked Mini. "Will you throw us in prison?".
To give credit to VB, he did not relent. "He said people who break rules will be punished. You knew that when you joined." Mini launched into a passionate spiel of how punishments were arbitrary and subjective in IF and that there were no defined rules.
Mini was smart. While his intentions were purely rabble rousing, he did know what levers to use. The rules and the punishments were in fact extremely subjective and depended on the Odds interpretation of the situation. Mini had also used this several times in his favour since he too was friends with several odds. So he knew that this was the truth and that VB couldn't say much about it.
Mini exhorted VB to punish the Odds who did not adhere to rules, and to have clear measureable rules. But VB was helpless. Other than a cool name and colour, he wasn't giving the Odds anything (remember the sasta and kifayati romance?). So how could he have measurable deliverables and punishments for Odds?
So he said, "I have nothing further to discuss. These rules stay and you will have to follow them. I truly do not believe that Venom Vendors (VV) need to be indulged here." He closed the doors and went away
M groaned. Now they would have another round of the same soap lather rinse routine again for being called VV.
This Brown was indeed nothing short of a bomb in a beautiful garden, a volcano in a verdant mountain, a quake in a quiet village, a shock in a serene town, a tumult in a tranquil kingdom...
M stopped with the descriptive analysis and decided to rack his brains and come up with a plan to overcome this. At the far end of his brain where a lot of useless information ( like the way VB blinked rapidly when angry and the Q's hot dance moves, and some of the silly BBQ jokes he found funny) were stored, suddenly popped up the sizzler colour...
Note2: Any resemblance to people living/dead/virtual is purely co-incidental.
Next Chapter : How Pink was my Valley.
Cricket
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