When you are traveling alone in a bus, flight or train the
next seated co-passengers often catch your attention. You have a book in hand
pretending to read, your headset repeating those songs that you have heard
several times, or sleep which in this case shd be ideal but becomes a distant pal.
You terribly fell like having a company in the company of so many unknown
souls.
I am anyways a distracted soul. My eyes when open are always
moving. As soon as I land in a place, my eyes do a quick scan of the
surroundings and if something catches its fancy, it makes me looking back to it
again and again. A handsome guy, a beautiful saree, a trendy outfit,
fashionable bags & of course the sweet little kids & toddlers are some
of the things I never happen to miss when out.
Talking of kids, its always nice to have them around and can
be the best en-route time pass. If they like you they will themselves start
touching your bag or peep into your mobile phone and most of the times even
talk to you. And if they happen to dislike you, they would just dislike you no
matter how hard you try to impress them. No pretenses there and isn’t it why we
all looooove kids?
So coming back to traveling, I was recently going solo in a
train. 03 hours were not very difficult to pass given the fact that I had a
book to finish. Apart from some people, rest were traveling in families. On my
left was a gentleman traveling alone like me and on my right was a family of
husband, wife & their daughter. A kid around was surely not going to be
boring I knew. Having guessed her age to be around 03 yrs I gave her a quick
glance before proceeding to read.
She looked quiet & all poised as she took her seat next
to her dad. At that time I didn’t want
much distraction & wanted to finish the book asap. But someone was just not
agreeable to this peace treaty. Within minutes this kid made her presence felt
in the coach. Jumping, running in the alley and screaming away she was a kid
literally announcing her arrival to the people. She even made some of them get
off their seats to see her. Had their parents not come to her rescue, she would
have managed to make the passengers run after her to stop. I cant even imagine
that happening in real, but yes it was that crazy.
Anyways she settled in some time, thanks to her father for
coming up with some game of sorts. I resumed my reading but was constantly
distracted with her blabbering. Well yes, kids at that age do talk a lot, but
this one was just ‘talking nineteen to the dozen’.
My glances gradually became more frequent at her as she kept
chattering away. She was spoken to in English by her parents & she too
managed to speak very well for her age. She was constantly speaking – of almost
anything under the sun and had a way of relating things & weaving stuff
almost like an raconteur. I was silently watching her and may I admit wondering
at her spooking energy levels & such a liking to storytelling. Saanvi as I
learnt the name from her conversations with her parents was a character at that point of time
more interesting than the ones in the book. Between talking & playing &
disturbing the quiet souls of the coach – she quickly caught me staring at her.
“Hello” she started.
“Oh ! Hi!!” I replied pretending to not have noticed her
till now.
“Can I touch you?” she asked casually to which I said “No,
you should not. You might get a shock” I murmured.
“Shock? What is that? She questioned & I gave her a
quick demo of how when you touch something (electrical) you just shiver…
“So that is shock, understood? But then you can touch
me coz I was joking” I said to her relief.
A wide grin just lit up her face and she continued “Can I
touch your earrings?”
“Yes you can?” I said pretending to get back to my book.
She touched my earrings couple of times all happy & gay
and then very innocently asked “Can I break it?”
“What?” “Break” “NO”! I was suddenly serious & the chick
was giggling away to the glory.
{background speech went like this – “No Saanvi! Bad girl! do
not talk like that! Say sorry to aunty and sit back! Do you want to eat chips?
Pls have some juice? ………….blah blah blah }
She was pulled back to her seat where she could barely be
for 02 mins and was back standing at the alley with half the body tilted to my
side.
“Do you have mamma – papa?” she asked. I nodded to which
came her next question “How many?”
“I will tell you but first tell me how many do you have?” I
quizzed to see the expression on her parents face.
“ I have one mama & one papa”
“Wow! So do I. Same pinch”
{Background – Silly Sanvi! What do you ask? What do you
learn in school?}
“Oh, you go to school?” I happened to ask knitting my brows
to give a rather interested-to-know-more-about-you look.
“No I am very small.” Oh! How much they love attention!
{Background – Saanvi you liar!}
My book was way too insulted. With over 02 hours gone by –
merely 05 pages were turned. So I decided to close it while dinner was being
served. Saanvi dearest’s mouth was still in action not with words but with food
this time. I ate the full meal at half the time she took to finish half of the meal.
Having finished dinner, I started twiddling my thumbs. Didn’t
want to get back to the book so started to play “angry birds” on phone. Between
shots I did shift my gaze to her once in a while, reflecting on how cute she
looked & how happy she indeed made her parents, on how nicely she spoke
& at the age of 03 or 04 something she could so easily comprehend & speak English
correctly.
There you go………. she caught me again. Having done with the
dinner – she tilted again and peeped into my phone.
“Hey you are playing angry birds”, she announced jumping
from her seat.
“Hmmmmm” I affirmed.
“Papa – give me your phone. I want to play angry bird.”
{Background – No Saanvi, just sit back, we are going to get
down in a while so no playing now.}
“No mama, I want to play. Pls Papa give me your phone…give
me your phone ..errrr”
The terrorized parents had to give in before her voice could
get more louder. She played and showed me that she too knew this game making me
think how common “angry bird” is. Ise
toh Bachha Bachha jaanta hai.
Everyone was getting ready as the train was about to enter
the last station. She looked at my trolley bag & said “ Can I touch this”? “Will
I get shock? HaHaHa!” She giggled.
Attempting to pull the trolley, she quietly asked “Can I
break it?”
{Background – Saanvi enough! You are disturbing aunty too
much, come back, we are about to reach}
Who can shout more than that when you have a child who is
smiling as you are chiding her. No eyes rolling, no tears flowing, no fear
factor trick works with her it seemed.
Finally we reached and as we were getting ready to come off
the couch one by one, I said bye to her & her parents.
The smiling beauty came in front of my face, looking into my
eyes, holding my fingers – ready with her next question “Can I talk to you in
Hindi?”
{background – Come on Salvi, we need to get down?”}
She continued without paying any heed as we kept moving towards
the exit. She was pulled by her dad whereas still holding my fingers.
“No tell me, can I talk to you in Hindi?” She demanded
“Yes Darling, but fast. We have to get down” I rushed.
“Tera naam Kya hai?” she inquired.
Ok, so she still doesn’t know much about the difference
between tera, tumhara & aapka. She was hardly spoken to in hindi you see –
I reflected.
Now it was almost their turn to get down but she continued
{Background – Come Saanvi – we got to go. Say Byee to aunty}
No she is not telling me.
Tell me , tell me “Tera naam kya hai?”
“We-e-ell my name is…………..is………”
“No in Hindi” she shouted
“Ok. Mera Na-a-am!”
“Mera Na-a-am!”
“Mera Na-a-am hai!” I drawled bit more
The darling angel at the top of her voice then said “Tera
naam Kya hai Basanti?”
Stumped I looked at her in disbelief. I mean did she just
say that.
{background – hahahahahahahahahahahaha!}
And I was rolling on the floor, my ass off with tears in my
eyes (read literally) as she got down the couch and went dragged almost like a
luggage by her dad.
She waved me & I quickly gave her a flying kiss. Slowly
the smiling beauty disappeared in the crowd leaving me smiling for the next few
days as I shared this with my friends & family. All had a good laugh and
thus smiles multiplied courtesy Saanvi :):):)
