I Kid You Not...

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 :):):)