A Tale of Two Uncles! The Good and the Bad!

“An “uncle” is a term used in an extended family. Your uncle is either a brother of one of your parents or the husband of your aunt.” Online Dictionaries

But how is then that all Asian kids call any older male they see as an Uncle? I think it is inherent in the Asian culture to teach children to address each and everyone they see as an Uncle or an Auntie. I can remember names like Milkman Uncle, Dhobi Uncle, Gas Delivery uncle, Police Uncle, Watch Man Uncle and the other countless uncle’s out there. It should also be mentioned that there are equivalent aunty terminology too, but lets get back to uncles.

Uncles form the social fabric, they some how have an automatic bond with you since you call them uncle. Uncles are nice, supermarket uncles give you a free chocolate at times or maybe shop uncle gives you a pepsi while your mom looks over the bundles and bundles of cloth in front of you. Uncles are those who drive the school bus, deliver newspapers, deliver groceries, pizzas, uncles come in huge trucks to pick up garbage and yes those uncles in uniform driving around in police cars who will take you away if you do any wrong.

It is almost like a Peter Pan world where every body is your Uncle and Aunt. Yipeee – what childhood bliss. But alas No!

However, that world comes crashing down when some Uncles act funny with you. Your parents tell you not to talk to such uncles or be careful of them. And such funny uncles are not talked about later or even seen anymore. As you grow older some uncles loose their importance and vanish like Elves that go away to Valinor.

But I guess in the gulf even little boys are warned against uncles who give them toffees or goodies to lure them away to some unknown fate. It was always like the Calvin and Hobbes Cartoon strip, u never knew what these Uncles look like or who they were. Most importantly no child knew what danger they were capable off. They were almost like the monsters in the closets or like the monsters under the bed that scared little Calvin and Hobbes.

Parents always talked in hushed tones about the fate of some friend’s family friend’s friend’s kid. Slightly older kids in the social circle bragged that they saw with their own eyes how those kids disappeared in unmarked cars and were found dead later and so on. Then suddenly out of no where there was curfew at home and other restrictive rules on the movement of kids. Again no idea what was the horror that was unspeakable to kids?

Well now all grown up, I wonder today why aren’t children told more than that the fact there are Bad Uncles out there. However there are many who are not so fortunate like me to live through a childhood without a bad uncle to cause me any horrors and nightmares.

This post is a silent tribute to them, for their strength for carrying on with life in all its beauty and not letting bad uncles of their childhood affect their present lives. It is like words from Wonder years where Kevin states “There are things in life that matter and things in the past which can't be denied!”

Live On and Live Strong!