at a kiddie birthday party

a little one with a quivering lower lip "aunty, i'm looking bad ?"

" no, baby. why do you ask ?"

" she told me i'm looking bad " ....... points at this little girl all dressed up in a pretty dress, with prettily made up hair with pretty clips

the same 'pretty' girl had reduced aditi to tears last week by calling her  'fat '

they are both 5 years old !!  

its not just one kid or two, its a malaise

many children i see around me are not kids

they are mini adults

mini judgmental adults

out of the mouths of babes

aditi and i are watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. a few minutes into the film i realise its unfit for her consumption. so i'm relieved when the phone rings, as it usually does at 2PM with amma at the other end and ask aditi  to get it. she reluctantly leaves and asks  me to pause the movie. i refuse, of course .

aditi picks up the phone and says this " the number  you have called is being called by another number now. please call later"

amma, shocked, says "aditi"

and aditi goes " peeee, peeee, peeee"

and quietly hangs up

out of the mouths of babes

the Tripathis - Shashank, Gauri, Tarini and Isha - move in next door to 502. they are great people. warm, fun and very ( oh so very) accomplished. Gauri is a Kathak dancer of international repute. the first ever dancer to perform in the westminster abbey. she's also a beautiful woman and a warm person.

gauri and aditi  take to each other instantly. gauri says about aditi " she's ME when i was her age"

aditi calls gauri  by her name - no aunty shaunty business. their love is too deep and beyond conventional relationship definitions.

gauri lends aditi  her silver, glittering nail polish. aditi looks as if she has been given a slice of heaven. she's so pleased with her new look, sparkling, silvery toes that she shows them off to everyone.

rema patti also gets to see the silver toed gushing girl .

now, rema patti had been aditi's sole companion on the fifth floor until gauri came along. they had a terrific equation as well. but that equation seemed to have taken a back seat when new equations were formed.

rema patti tells aditi  " i cannot give you bottles of glittering nail polish. i can only give you lots and lots of love"  

to which aditi says " that is okay. Love is more important than nail polish'

at which a visibly touched rema patti sits down next to aditi and hugs her tightly.

i watch on. without disturbing .

out of the mouths of babes

Diwali 2012 in Haripriya, Ernakulam

aditi's passion is amar chithra katha. she's always to be seen reading one. 

at lunch she says " i want to offer my mother my love and devotion"

straight out of an ACK. 

there is a round of muffled laughter at the table.

mummy chuckles and touches her heart with her palm as if to say " listen to her !"

aditi looks at mummy and enquires " heart attack ?" 

this time the laughter is loud 

out of the mouths of babes

mammootty is an awful dancer. the man has no sense of timing when it comes to dance and his moves are robotic. there he was on air, trying to dance and looking quite the fool.

i laughed out loud at his attempts only to be chided by the child sitting next to me " dance is not his strength. his strength is acting ".

GULP

Hari and I exchanged looks ( GULP is an emotion that can be conveyed through looks, i learned that day ) over the tiny head of curls.

out of the mouths of babes

aditi has designated herself the trolley pusher when we are out shopping. it is a task she enjoys and one that she takes very seriously indeed. the Big Bazar outlet in K Star Mall, Chembur is the least of her favourite trolly pushing places. its cramped space with unopened cartons blocking the way of shoppers once got her to pronounce that " this is Block Bazar " not Big Bazar.

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings , i say.

when i texted her indignant opinion to her father, his reply was " clever. she seems to have inherited your sense of humor and my sarcasm ".

now that's the closest my man has ever come to complimenting my sense of humour. 

out of the mouths of babes

what do you say to a child who answers a question wrong and says it was because her ' mind had a printing mistake ' ?