By Murali. A. Raghavan

'Museebatein batake nahin aati’ which translated means ‘troubles come unannounced’. Cable goes off when you are watching an interesting IPL match, income-tax notice arrives when you are celebrating and the showers come down when you wear expensive leather shoes for the first time. These are not the sort of troubles the Max New York Life Insurance advertisement is talking about. Whatever it is, the commercial has generated anxious queries and made people run for cover. I will answer few of them.



Now let us focus on the Ad first. The lady of the house sprints up the stairs, opens the doors, enters the kitchen and shouts ‘Sunju’, obviously her husband’s name. No response. She goes into the hall and again cries out ‘Sunju’ and again no response. Fear grips her seeing the newspaper lying scattered around the hall. She scampers into the bedroom and looks at the shoes lying overturned. There is greater panic in her voice this time as she shouts ‘Sunju’ once more. Still no response. She walks into the balcony where she sees back of ‘Sunju’ slumped in an easy chair with his hands drooping down on one side and the tea cup overturned. The voice in the background says ‘Museebatein batake nahin aati’ as she nears him and gently taps on his shoulders. Lo! Sunju pounces on her like a big cat and says ‘You scared me’ and there after, there is a sense of relief, hugging etc…..



Now what sort a character is this Sunju. He looks to me like a male chauvinist and a wife tormentor who considers it below his dignity to respond to his wife’s call. The way he is asleep, he could also be reckoned as a direct descendent of Kumbarna. Four times his wife calls out his name and he does not respond. Why? Maybe he was hooked to FM radio which does not speak highly of him considering his age. Maybe is deaf which makes him a risky proposition for the insurer. Maybe he was on a silent mode like the most mobiles are these days.



He has strewn newspapers all around the place in the drawing room. There could be several reasons for this. Perhaps he did not like the news on the front page and threw the paper in a fit of a rage. The other possibility is that he is a fan of Royal Challengers and took out his anger on the tabloid, which told the story of the team’s defeat with color pictures. If that was the case he should have called up Vijay Mallya and shared his miseries with him.



Going into bedroom, Sunju has flung around his shoes like a 16-year old kid. The man seems to be in urgent need of counseling. The blame also lies with the lady of house who has not bothered to get a proper shoe rack for Sunju, which is why he has thrown the shoes all over the place.



Now let us come to the last scene. You saw the tea cup upturned near his easy chair. The key question is who gave him tea. If he made it all by himself, he should gain some sympathy when his wife hauls him up in the court for harrassment. Is Sunju a tea-addict? Normally tea is supposed to drive away the sleep but here Sunju is shown fast asleep after having tea. The guy’s sleeping prowess is remarkable.



When his wife touches Sunju he pounces like a cheetah and says ‘you scared me’. Here one has to disagree with Sunju. The way he jumps up by a mere touch, he is the one who scares every one. Also the way he is sunk in the easy chair with his drooping arms, any insurer will think twice before writing a policy for him.



In the final analysis the phrase ‘Museebatein batake nahin aati’ could well apply to the insurance company too if it has a client like Sunju.