squish and one walnut hit her forehead with a loud smack. One slice of over- ripe papaya came whizzing off the fan and, as they watched it helplessly, it oh horrors splattered all over Mrs.Krishnan’s unfinished masterpiece, sunset at Marina, spreading streaks of gooey orange pulp and shiny black seeds all over it. Mrs.Krishnan groaned tragically and looked ready to shoot Zigzag, but he was saved by the bell. The telephone bell!
They answered one call after another as all the neighbours rang upto demand what the awful KNGRRDRRWHEEZE sound was and if they could please have some peace. And through all this commotion, Zigzag slept on unconcerned. And snored on. Finally, an exhausted Mrs.Krishnan rang up her husband.
I’am going crazy with the sound of Zigzag snoring, plus all these angry telephone calls. And my beautiful painting…’ Here her voice cracked. ‘You know Mrs.Jhunjhunwala, the art critic who lives upstairs, well, she heard Zigzag snoring and had the cheek to telephone and ask me whether I could sing a little softly when I took my singing lessons. Please contact Somu and find out what we should do.’ Dr.Krishnan came home as fast as he could after he had left an e-mail message for Somu, asking him for clear instructions on how to stop Zigzag from snoring.’ ‘Don’t worry,’ he reassured his downcast family.
‘Somu will reply soon and we’ll discover there’s some ridiculously simple way to stop Zigzag from snoring. Six days passed. Six frantic days of checking their e-mail day and night. Six torturous days of having the deafeningly loud KNGRRDRRWHEEZE resound in their home, most nerve wrackingly.
Maya complained that she heard a permanent rumbling sound in her ears even when she was miles away from home and that her ears ached all the time. Arvind confessed that, for the first time in his life, he was actually looking forward to going to school considering it was as calm as a monastery compared to their house. Mrs. Krishnan had lost interest in painting.
10th - - Zigzag would sometimes wake up briefly when he