KlePToManiA thE mOSt embaRRASing DisoRdeR to bE cauGHT with!!

My friend Babli was one of the two siblings born to a senior army officer and an extremely rich mother.Her house was filled with antiques her folks had picked up from their various world tours abroad.Her room which she shared with her sister Rekha was cramped with an array of stuff adolescents would die to have!Cupboards spilling with good clothes-branded and expensive which smelt of style, tables spilling with scrapbook of kinds unimaginable, albums, CDs, stickers, colours and watches, dressing table jam-packed with cosmetics and hairbrushes.What held my interest were the books and comics though.Babli was the ultimate collector of things rare and unique.In that sense I admired her.

Afternoons we would spend lazily lying down on the double bed reading books and making our scrapbooks.Sometimes make up and dresses would enthrall us.At times we'd face the ceiling as we lay together and sing our hearts together.

Babli and I got along like house on fire.We were only 14.

One sunday we caught the local bus with another friend of ours, Namrata to Fancy bazar(the heart of Guwahati) and got down on the banks of the Brahmaputra.And then it was to Modhut, an Archies gallery -the ultimate stop for a teenager.When we walked into that tiny cramped shop it was always like we were walking into a different world.Red heart shaped ballons, cards, trinklets, badges, hairbands, wrist bands,bangles, earrings and pouches!!Like always i was lost.Just then there was a scuffle and I saw babli being ushered to the counter of the shop, to the manager.There we three were facing each other totally perplexed why we had been brought to the owner of the shop.Suddenly I wasnt comfortable there.

"What are you three carrying in your bags?", he asked in a tone which wasnt polite.I heard Namrata saying, " Just books" and I added, "We are children of respectable people."Babli was quiet.I felt protective of her.We were frisked and nothing was found in mine and namrata's bags but when it was Babli's turn to get frisked, she resisted.It was then, to our utter horror, we saw eaarings, batches, cards, stickers, bandana and all sort of trunklets come out!!Obviously, she had picked them up from the racks and not intended to pay for them!!How had she managed with so many people watching over??

We were lierally thrown out of the shop and told never to step in again!Oh what a humilaition!!drenched in shame and pity we didnt speak to each other all the way home.

Now when i think about it, I realise how babli my friend had the most beautiful and the rarest of things cramped in her room and her life.She must have been a kleptomaniac!!Kleptomaniais a disorder of stealing things though the person is fully capable of paying for it.Kleptomania is an impulse control disorder characterized by a recurrent failure to resist stealing.Some call it shop-lifting.The person suffering from it gets a high from carrying this off!!