My little cousin

Last year I took one of the "Thomas the tank engine" toys - train, engine driver, rail-tracks, station and passengers-all in a box, for my 4 year old cousin, A. His face beamed when I gave it to him and before we settled down at mama-mami's place, he had the whole package unpacked. Incidently, the train I took was mechanical and had to be pushed by hand at least onto the flyover after which it went on by itself due to inertia. I had not realised that during the buy. After playing with it for a while, his interest began to dampen. He probably would have liked it more if the toy did everything by itself and he only had to watch it like a spectator. This was work! Seeing his spirits dampened, I thought I would pep him up a bit. So I went up to him and said, "Arj.., next time I'll get you one with batteries, ok? What say?". He looked at me and then thought a little and said, "Tab toh remote wali laana" (In that case, get one with remote).

Nostalgia as sisters

I was just thinking how simple life used to be when we were kids. Fun had a completely different definition all together! My sister is four years elder to me but I never really felt much age difference and would almost treat her as my equal ;-). There were times when she was bossy and protective though but mostly she was very friendly and fun. The age gap almost disappeared by the time I became a teenager.

Back then we used to play a lot of stupid and funny games. Like, standing in the balcony, watching vehicles on the road and then guessing which one would come next. So if I guessed a bike and a bike appeared I won the game. When I was younger I used to look up to her and would always be completely mesmerized with the forever new games or puzzles she would get home. One such puzzle game was to ask the other person, "What ka matlab kya hota hai?" '(What is the meaning of what?' :)). Silly games like that. At that time I did think of it as a very intelligent game :-). These and many other such fun puzzles and stories would increase my reverence for her by multitudes. I would then replay those with my friends and classmates and bask in the glory.

She would come home from school a an hour or two later than me. Often, she would get candies along. That would be really exciting. Also, sometimes she would be generous in telling me incidents from her day in school. I always found them very fascinating -imagining what life was like when you were a senior.

I also remember my birthdays in school. A birthday used to be a really big day. I would always want it to fall on a school day. We were supposed to carry sweets to class and not be dressed in uniform. Eventually everyone would sing for the birthday kid and then he or she would distribute the sweets in class. In my case, after the celebration in my classroom, I would always go to my sis's class. And then with the usual "Please may I come in ma'am" and the obvious awareness of being the priviledged kid of the day with all eyes on you, I would walk up to her desk and give her the sweets with a sheepish grin on my face.

It just feels so hilarious when I look back at those times now. But I do miss all that simplicity and innocence.

Arjun again

So I finally got a gift for Arjun again before leaving from US. It was Robot Shoes, which looked exactly like the ones the lead protagonist wore in the animation movie "Robots". They looked really cute to me and I thought it was a good buy. Well, a friend  warned me that he had asked for "remote" controllable toys this time and you should not buy this one. I ignored thinking Arjun is too small to remember all that.

Anyways, when we visited their place in Delhi this time, Arjun just ran up to me and took me to some corner and asked promptly without a hi or a greeting, "Mere liye kya laaye ho?" (what have you brought for me). And I eagerly showed him the Robot stuff. Well, thankfully he dint ask whether it was remote controlled or not but he looked a little confused as to what fun they would be. I explained that these are shoes Robots wear and if you also wear them and walk around they will make similar sounds and you will become a Robot too. He was then curious -"Then what about the Cap on the head and the dress the robots wear? Why dint you bring that?"

Today I met him again and just to distract him from the mischives he was upto I asked him what should I bring you next time. He said "Computer or rather laptop".

The Numbershake

In India at home we initially used to have only one landline connection. I remember when we had got that instrument I had very enthusiastically filled in the label stuck on it with the phone number. As if it was a very responsible thing to do. Also, I think it's almost second nature for me to name or number things, specially books and diaries. Any book that I buy will have my signature on the first page. All my diaries would be otherwise empty but will almost religiously have my name, number, emergency contact and other useless stuff on the first page. All my notes on loose sheets will have the page, lecture number and date. The naming tendency is slowly going away though while I am making a deliberate effort not to be such a narcissist. :-)

Anyways, subsequently while I came to US, another connection was added to the house. Now somehow the old instrument got connected to the new number and a new instrument to the old. The twist in the story being that the dutifully written label of the old phone number was still stuck on the instrument with the now new number. And so this time when I went to India, I had a difficult time making my mind adjust to that change. I would invariably pick up the old phone number to dial thinking it to be the new one or vice versa. It was not much of a big deal though for the other party as they would respond as far as they recognized you or your voice. Only that the call rates were a little different and if you wanted to be more conscious about them you would have to give your mind the trouble.

The extreme happened one day when I picked up the old instrument (with the new phone number) to make a call at my Mom Dad's. Somehow absentmindedly (which by now you know comes so natural to me) I dialed the home phone number itself instead of my mom dad's (the one which was written on the phone I was dialing from but was actually that old number now connected to the new instrument lying just next to it). And you can pretty much guess what happened. The scene went like this - I am dialing our old phone number thinking it is my mom dad's number. And the phone next to mine rings. You know why. But nothing occurred to my mind until then. My eyes only saw the bell ringing on the other phone while I was making a call from the first. I decided to cancel my current outgoing call and pick up the incoming call as no one had received the call yet and I could always call my home later. It was just a normal everyday call. But as soon as I put down the receiver the other phone also stopped ringing. You know why again. But it didnt occur to me still. But the knowledge angels did bless me eventually and thankfully I didnt redial.

It dint happen again.