Those days! I would be rampaging around the small flat on the second floor, always up to some mischief or other. After Babi didi and Runu didi left for office, I would be left alone with Baba and Ma. So as long as they were there I wanted to tease them as much as I could - hiding their socks under the bed or peeling off their rubber bands from their hair or going near the emersion rod, where bathing water was getting heated in plastic buckets (It was strictly forbidden for me to go near it). They would all be shouting at me. Poor Ma - she would be in the kitchen preparing breakfast and filling their tiffin dabbas. In this melee, Baba while reading his newspaper would intermittently chide Ma for wasting his money on that costly book, which she did not read.
Ma had taken up the challenge of teaching me toilet habits and spent hours with me in the toilet. She had succeeded in her mission and had taken up the new challenge of making me a retriever. She would be giving me commands all day - “Budu, go fetch my slippers, or Budu, pick up the newspaper from the landing” and I would be running her errands. But then, Babi didi entered her domain - taking me under her benevolent wings and upsetting Ma’s plans, as Ma believed that there could not be two teachers at the same time.
Babi didi would enter the house in the evening with her bag full of tempting things. She would take out a mini bar of chocolate and dangle it over my head, making me jump higher and higher to grab it, till the whole house gathered around us to watch the spectacular show of my acrobatics. In the end Babi didi would let me have it but the damage was done to my good name, as the sobriquet “Jumping Jack and Monkey Boy” got attached to my name. As if that was not enough! The next day Baba would burst the bomb shell that my poop came out wrapped in chocolate paper. Oh! What a shame, in my excitement I had eaten the chocolate with the wrapper.
At other times Babi didi brought for me squeaking toys - of all size, shape and character. There was this duck family…a mother duck and her three bite size babies, and all of them squeaked. Inquisitive as I am, I would mouth each baby duck one by one and rampage around the house from room to room. Ma would comment “Oh! what sweet music Budu is creating”. Soon the music would stop, I had found out the secret of their voice. In utter dismay I would make some forced attempts to make them squeak again but they would not make any sound anymore. Then I would go to Babi didi looking miserable and make her promise to buy me more toys.
Some days Babi didi would enter the house with balloons. Obviously they were for me. But instead of giving them to me, she would start tossing them into the air. Then Runu didi, Chotu didi and even Ma would join in playing volleyball, tossing from one corner to the other with much haa haa and hoo hoo. I would be sprinting in the centre like that jackal of the sour grapes. At last it came into my possession but before I could feel it, I would hear a loud bang, leaving me dazed. Babi didi would promise to buy me better quality balloons next time.
But the most bizarre thing happened in the night. After dinner she would grab me and take me to mother, asking her to put me to sleep by thumping my body while singing a lullaby. Ma would make excuses that she had long forgotten them. But Babi didi always had a way to get what she wanted. At last Ma would sing a filmy song by Kishore Kumar, something like this…
Munna bada pyara,
Mummy ka dulara, Koi kahe chand, koi Ankh ka tara.
It would take me some time to understand what was happening with me. Do we need thumping for going to sleep? Moreover, how could I go to sleep when others were awake? Even if I was just a puppy then, I still saw myself as the watchman of the house. I could not submit to Babi didi’s utopian ideas. I would wiggle out of Ma’s hands with a high jump on the floor and then run helter skelter to the front room - Babi didi chasing me, raising an alarm.
Babi didi always had an infinite stamina. She used to work on the computer till late at night (sometimes early hours of the morning) while I sat on the floor facing her - my eyes heavy with sleep. And she rewarded me for keeping her company by sharing her midnight snack – CHOCOLATES…
3 comments:
Boodi Boo, in other words are you trying to say that I spoilt you?
Babi didi,
Haven't I said that you took me under your benevolent wings? Otherwise Ma, teacher as she was, would have had practised more of her teaching skills on me. I prefer to be natural than become a rabbit like some of my friends, who are undergoing training - shaking hands, taking commands and everything else. But interestingly, as their training classes are out of their homes in a field or a park, they have not got the bathroom concept and I am told they are a headache for their families. So I should be thankful to Ma in this regard. Now to whichever home I go e.g. Runu didi's house, I use the bathroom.
My dear budiboo, I dont ever regret that nobody taught you to shake hands and the like.... Of course, that does not mean I approve of the ruckuss you make when you see other canine friends on the road and there have been countless times when I have wished you were a bit more behaved! But then, you are what you are... aur kya batayein!!!
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