Varun and I returned home yesterday. As we got off the 10.30 bus, we were met by people asking about Sonati's health, and commiserating with us about the break-in. Everyone was most amused by Thatha's line which I quoted "Veetu-la onnum illai-innu avan ethavathu pottu-tu poirka-poraan: paaru " (Seeing nothing in the house, maybe he left something for you: Take a look).

Well, we got home, and looked, and heard the descriptions of the scene of crime from Govindraj and Kamaraj's mother (who was the first to discover it).

Maybe Varun's recreation is true: who knows? "Maybe they came up for medicine or something, saw the house locked, went to the back verandah, were tempted by the ladder (which I had forgotten to put away inside), climbed in through the roof (the tiles were neatly removed), were frustrated to find that there was nothing they wanted, went around to the back, broke the window, got in and rifled through everything. The cupboard was not locked, (my mistake again) but surprisingly, it was not disturbed much, not even a very visible silver plate.

The Sponge Cat's house was also broken into, and in fact, Munge Kunju has been kidnapped. There has been a general flinging around of stuff; the aquarium (already broken a bit) has been shattered (rather pointlessly) with a stone. The boys' white cupboard (which was locked) has been broken into; Sonati's desk also has been opened and stuff strewn about.

Well, thanks, all of you who wrote, talked, dropped in. The list of missing items (these are items that I know were in a particular place and are not there now: there may be other things missing) as of now is 1) all the knives in the kitchen, including the bread knife, Sonati's curved knives... 2) the small wooden lemur that Ramsub got us from Madagascar 3) the 4-in-1 SKF screwdriver set key-chain that I have had for some 20 years 4) pencils and pens from many places 5) the sellotape ripped out of the dispenser, rendering the dispenser dysfunctional 6) Sonati's moon-phase watch

So, was it someone who was looking for money, didn't find any and just took some random stuff to make it look as if it was kids who had broken in? Or was it kids? But what would kids want with kitchen knives?

It all seems to be without rhyme or reason. The only definite thing is that I have a window pane to replace, the first broken pane in all these years.